Arum maculatum Lords-and-Ladies

Arum maculatum, Lords-and-Ladies, is a common perennial of woodlands and hedgerows. The dark green, arrow-shaped leaves arise from a tuberous rhizome in late Winter or early Spring. In some individuals the leaves have dark, purple spots and populatons often contain a mixture of spotted (maculate) and unspotted plants. The remarkable inflorescence consists of a hood-like spathe which at its base is wrapped around the male and female flowers. Out of this arises the distictive purple spadix that has an unpleasant smell which attracts small flies that are enticed into the chamber enclosed by the base of the spadix and where they bring about pollination. After fertilisation the spathe and the male flowers wither way and the female flowers develop into a bunch of red berries during the Summer. The berries contain large amounts of oxalic acid which renders them toxic and children who are attracted by the bright red berries are particularly at risk from poisoning. Lords-and Ladies is a common and widespread plant in the lowlands of West Glamorgan and is a familiar species of Gower woodlands and hedgebanks. It is also frequent in the riparian corridor woodlands of Neath Port Talbot, but it prefers base rich soils and is rare or absent from the acidic Sessile-oak woodlands and the conifer forests that occur on the steep sides of the valleys.

Native