Photographs: Co. Cork

Lords-and-Ladies / Cuckoo-pint / Arum Arum maculatum Cluas chaoin Family: Araceae Flowering: March-May. Fruiting: July-August. Perennial. Native. Tiny flowers in dense brown or purplish spike (spadix) enclosed in sheath (spathe). Upper part forming hood. Spathe yellowish-cream, spotted or streaked with purple. Fruiting spike with poisonous orange/red berries. Long-stalked, hairless, arrow-triangular shaped leaves, sometimes with purplish-black blotches. Net-veined. Height: 30-50 cm. Found in woods and hedgebanks on rich, calciferous soils. Similar: Italian Lords-and-ladies, A. Italicum ssp. italicum. White-veined leaves and yellow spathe. Introduced.

Lords-and-Ladies / Cuckoo-pint, Arum maculatum, Chluas chaoin