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hardy  Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL> Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
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From: Diane Whitehead <ua024 at VICTORIA.TC.CA>
Subject: sikokianum and possible hybrid?
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I have three arisaemas sitting beside my computer as I attempt to ID them.
They have no labels. I have dozens of pots of seedlings carefully
labelled, but the ones that grow up and flower have almost invariably los=t
theirs.

One is definitely A. sikokianum.  Its spathe points more-or-less up,
revealing a big white ball-headed spadix. The spathe is dark outside,
white inside.  There are two leaves, each with three serrate-edged
lleaflets, below the flower.

The next has a flower a bit similar: spathe a bit broader and pointing up
to show a spadix that is off-white and gently wider at the tip, not a
conspicuous knob.  Both inside and outside it is dark and light green
striped.  The two leaves are below the flower.  Each has a single central
leaflet, but the two outer leaflets are divided: the larger leaf has thre=e
parts (for a total of 7 "leaflets") and the smaller leaf has two parts
(for a total of 5 "leaflets").  I'm not sure what the division of a
leaflet should be called.  I've looked through all the pictures on the
Arisaema page, and this flower looks closest to the " sikokianum x
takedae"  shown with the North American species.  I did have seed of this
cross, and of sik x tak x angust. in 1998.  The seedlings with these
labels are only just now emerging in the cold frame.  I brought these
flowering pots in a few weeks ago to force for a flower show.  Could this
flower be a hybrid?

The third one has only one leaf, with five leaflets (central one single,
each side one with two parts), below the flower. The spathe is dark red,
folded down to hide the spadix which is mostly the same thickness from to=p
to bottom, off white with tiny dark red speckles.  The inside of the
spathe is striped with white. I can't see any picture on the Arisaema pag=e
that looks like it.  They all have distinct characteristics, and this one
llooks as though it ought to be the classic arisaema - nothing flamboyant=,
the "little black dress" of the arisaema clan.

I will try to borrow someone's digital camera if my descriptions don't
elicit an "AHA!" from one of you.
Diane Whitehead  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada