Scientific name: Arum maculatum L.
Common name: Lords and Ladies, Cuckoo pint
Description
Habit: Short, rhizomatous herbs, 25-40cm high. Appearing in early Spring.
Leaves: Entire leaves, triangular-ovate, hastate to sagittate, with a long petiole, to 25cm, sometimes spotted with blackish-purple, usually shiny.
Flowers: Flowers unisexual; spathe with its lower part wrapped around and concealing the basal part of the spadix, its upper part forming a hood, 10-20(-25)cm, pale yellowish-green, often with purple margin and spots; spadix with a purplish (rarely yellow) appendage projecting into the hood, c. 1/2 as long as spathe; below the appendage and concealed within the lower part of the spathe are, successively, a ring of hairs, a zone of male flowers, consisting of 4 stalkless anthers, another ring of hairs, and a zone of female flowers, consisting of a 1-celled ovary; perianth absent.
Fruits: Fruiting spike 3-(5)6cm, consisting of red berries; with 1-several seeds.
Habitat: Woods and shady hedges.
Distribution: Widespread but local.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No