Miscellany

[Roy Herold]

A few tidbits:

1. We've heard people from Florida complain that they can't grow arisaemas.
Well, I just found a web site (forgot the URL) that has detailed maps of
the distribution of various plant species in Florida, right down to the
county. Lo and behold, A. triphyllum occurs naturally all the way down to
what looks like Fort Myers on the west coast, directly opposite from Miami.
It is also found in most every other county north of Lake Okeechobee. It
certaily could be interesting to see if these are as hardy as the Zone 3-4
natives from the northern US and Canada. Is there any chance that this is
the widest ranging arisaema species? I mean, we're talking about Zone 3 to
Zone 10. As an aside, A. dracontium and A. [triphyllum ssp.] quinatum occur
in northern Florida, also.

2. Just received the Alpine Garden Society Bulletin, and it includes the
first installment of Guy Gusman's article on Japanese arisaemas. Nice
pictures of A. monophyllum and A. iyoanum, too. Nice job, Guy!

3. Somebody asked a while back about depth of arisaema tubers in the wild.
Most of us know A. triphyllum, and that is normally no more than an inch or
two deep (to the top of the tuber). The ones we found in China were a much
different story. A. franchetianum tended to be near the surface, maybe
three inches down at most. Most of the others were DEEP, and I mean way
down there. We often had to abandon digging  because the stem went straight
down into rocks or tree roots, with no tuber in sight a foot down. I know I
excavated several that were eighteen inches down. One consanguineum type
was growing in a rock slide, and I must have moved a hundred pounds of rock
to get to it, and didn't have any fingernails left afterwards. Yes, it did
make it back with me. It should also be noted that the climate in Yunnan is
so benign that I doubt that the ground ever freezesa more than an inch deep
at the altitudes where we found arisaemas. Moral of the story: plant them
as deep as you can for cold protection. They *will* grow.

4. Multiple leaves on seedlings: I got multiple leaves on A. candisissimum
seedlings last year, but it took about six months for the second set to
appear. Nothing went dormant in the interim. Sorry, no pix. I was late in
planting Guy's franchetianums, and when I got them in the tips of the
pre-germinated roots had shriveled up. Two are up now, though, and looking
healthy.

5. My corollary to Tony and Kristl's slogan: "I consider every arisaema
tender until I have enough of it to try outside."

--Roy
North Reading, MA
...but it may as well be the arctic. Robins are breaking their beaks trying
to get a meal out of the frozen ground.....