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Unknown bobbly plant

Hello, I'm posting here on behalf of my mother who is the gardener in our family. She wants to know what these strange bobbly plants are. They've been coming up in our garden for years - at the moment they are green but she said they do turn red in about August - they look like berries. Any ideas?

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BOpabQKCUAAwnqz.jpg

 

Posts

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,612

    Arum italicum pictum also known as lords and ladies

  • Fabulous, thank you!

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    I think they are quite attractive and let them grow in certain wilder areas of my garden but they do spread like mad, particularly if you let the berries go soft and fall off or if the berries get into the compost heap - then hundreds will come up!

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • artjakartjak Posts: 4,167

    Fidget, is it the same as 'cuckoo pint'?

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    More correctly they look like the other British native one which is Arum maculatum, rather than the A. italicum.

    They have the most number of names of any native plant, mostly based on the Phallic appearenace of the flowers centre.

    Cuckoo Pint, Lords and Ladies, Angles and Saxons, Wake Robin, Wake Pintle, Dog's Tausle, Parson in the Pulpit...........I could go on, but why?

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    And they are poisonous

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

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