[edited by wcutler 20090820: this has been re-identified as Arum italicum, but for a while was thought to be Arisaema] The colourful spikes at the foot of the giant weed-looking thing look like they've been stuck in the ground as decorations for a recent parade, but I think they're really some plant and I'm curious about what they are. They don't seem to be related to anything growing around them. Will leaves appear later? These are along the path of the Rhododendron Garden in Stanley Park, where the inside path joins the bike path along the lagoon. Speaking of the giant weed-looking thing, I know it has been posted around here but can't find it now and I would be interested to have it identified as well. It seems to be at least twice my height.
Re: What plant? Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters Thanks, tipularia. Arisaema seems to be right. According to the Pacific Bulb Society's Arisaema pages, I guess I won't bother with which of the 350 or so possibilities it is, though it would be nice to know if it is or is not Jack in the Pulpit. Most of the (many) photos on those pages show flowers with leaves, so I'm assuming that means I missed the leaves and won't see any until next spring? I think the spike is the spadix; the spathe is the flower that surrounded the spadix.
Re: What plant? Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters And the giant weed-looking thing is likely Paulownia tomentosa.
Re: What plant? Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters Thanks, Lorax. I didn't associate it with the Paulownia tree, but for a week I've been trying to remember the name of that tree with the big leaves that I confuse with Catalpa (but shouldn't, as Catalpa have opposite leaves), so that was double the help! Now I can find another thread on the forums: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=41245
Re: What plant? Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters Well, that was wrong. Paulownia have opposite leaves too. I guess I can go back to confusing them.
Re: What plant? Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters Catalpa leaves are not downy and the shoots are more slender and firm.
Re: Arisaema: Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters; and Paulownia tomento Here's how the Parks Board is managing a different pair of Paulownias on either side of the building at the entrance to the Stanley Park golf course - you can see the maybe 8" diameter trunk. I guess it's cut back every year so it just looks like a very tall plant that fits nicely in the arrangement.
Re: Arisaema: Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters; and Paulownia tomento Red berries. I believe that these are Arum italicum, rather than Arisaema. They flower in the summer, the flowers being contained in a hooded thing called a spathe. During the late spring the leaves die back completely, leaving behind a solitary skalks with the berries on, they may last until the leaves start to appear in the autumn. http://images.google.com/images?q=a...1I7SUNA_en-GB&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi Hope this helps.
Re: Arisaema: Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters; and Paulownia tomento Italium arum was my thought also. Not being certain, I stayed out of it.
Re: Arisaema: Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters; and Paulownia tomento I believe you are correct.
Thanks so much. I've renamed the thread. I was having trouble learning that other name anyway. This one I might remember.
Hi Wendy,I have noticed that when a thread has been answered you change the title. Others too have started to do this. I find it very off putting to see a latin name as the title. I think to myself..." if they know what it is, why the heck are they asking." Surely a title such as 8"tall bare stem full of red berries, or shrub big leaf would be more helpful to others who follow behind. It has happened that the same query has occured, one behind the other. If they were to read "huge leaves /tree"... posters may just think... "mine is like that too".... and read the answer. The latin name to many is often complete gobbledygook and does not convey a thing to them! Any serious researchers will put the latin name into the search at the green bar at the top of the screen and will be able find all posts anyway. So an appeal from me... please do give your title a good picture description and do not change the title after reading answers.. sometimes answers can be wrong. SS
OK, thanks. We've talked about this before, but I'll try to separate what I want to do in the cherry id thread, in which some people want to be able to look up a particular tree by name, from how people use this forum. I do often look to see if anyone has posted my query by browsing and querying the names I think are in the running, but they come up in the search if they're in the text anyway. But I almost never have anything to contribute to a thread (in this forum anyway) and just browse when I'm in the neighbourhood to see if I can learn about anything I'm likely to see growing. For me, once the plants are identified, I'd like to know that and to see the name so I can choose what I want to learn about and see right away which postings are the same plant. But I certainly don't want to confuse you people who are doing all the work here.
I've got the leaves now of the plant identified as Arum italicum, and they seem consistent with that ID. Another one of these was posted recently at http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=65455
Always good to have a confirmation. Arum italicum do have leaves that appear in the autumn. Thanks Wendy.
A. italucum does naturalize. If you want a patch, great, but, they can be difficult to eradicate as tiny bulbs easily drop off the mother bulb when the plant is dug or the vegetation removed. All bulbs remain in place to multiply during dormancy, when the vegetation falls off, or when the vegetation is removed. If you want a patch, though, it creates visual delight - the attractive variegated leaves emerge first, then the delicate yellow spathe, the leaves eventually drop off, and a patch of naked fruit-covered stems remain. Gradually the fruit turns bright red. In my patch, the juvenile and young bulbs do not flower and produce solid green sagittate leaves.
I find Arum italicum to be one of the worst weeds here, especially the non variegated form which it can revert to (or is that just the young plants?). As Susan says the bulbs are very difficult to eradicate, even small fragments resprout with great vigour so digging out is a fruitless task. Any tips for getting rid of this pest without nuking the soil?
MAF, this is what I have learned. The eradication can be done any time of the year, but is simplest when the plant is in leaf. In this state it is relatively easy to find and remove the largest and most mature plants. The goal is to remove the whole plant mass - mother and babies - with the whole bulb-cluster intact. Loosen the soil all round the base of each plant with a weeding tool (the long simple two-pronged fork). Dig straight down in a circumference three to four inches greater than the circumference of the leaf tuft. The bulb depth will vary. Loosening the soil around the roots helps. Holding the leaf tuft with the passive hand during the whole process will help too. When bulbettes do fall off, and they will, scoop them up as your patience allows and until your eyes tire in attempts to distinguish between tiny bulbettes and tiny clods of native earth. The bulbs left behind will eventually announce their presence and have usually not yet multiplied so are a bit easier to remove the following year(s)(s).
Thanks, I guess I just need a bit more patience. I usually think I have got rid of them all, plant the area with something I don't want to disturb, and you can imagine what happens next.
Re: Single spikes (spathes?) with red fruit clusters; and Paulownia tomentosa They're a little fuzzy, though. I was expecting them to be smooth, so was getting confused. But Catalpa don't bloom until a few months after Paulownia, and the long Catalpa pods are very different from the nut-shaped Paulownia fruits. These are last year's pods on the Catalpa, as the trees are just flowering now at the end of July. Here's a very downy young Paulownia leaf from a plant that was cut down to the ground in the winter. And a tree with fruits in mid-April (also last year's? I think it had already bloomed this year, but I can't remember).
