Arum pictum

Native to Majorca (Mallorca), Minorca, Corsica, Sardinia and the west coast of central Italy.

A winter-growing herb with a whitish tuber 5–7 cm across. The arrow-head-shaped leaves are about 30 cm long and 15 cm wide. At first they are shiny and purplish, later becoming silvery or whitish. The flowering stem (spadix) appears with or before the leaves, and smells strongly of horse dung. The spadix is 8–13 cm long, the appendage stout, cylindrical and purplish-black. The sheathing bract (spathe) is 9–19 cm long, 4–6.5 cm wide, greenish on the outside, deep, velvety purple-brown on the inside, with a mottled, greenish tip, and is slightly hooded. Three whorls of organs are found at the base of the spadix and enclosed in the folded spathe: the uppermost is a whorl of bristly staminodes (sterile stamens); in the middle there is a large cluster of small, male flowers; beneath there is a cluster of larger, female flowers. The fruits, which are red when ripe, are berries 5–11 mm long.

The habitat of Arum pictum, like that of all Mediterranean coastal plants, is under pressure as a result of spreading urban development, particularly building for tourism.

Arum pictum is cultivated as an ornamental.

The Millennium Seed Bank partnership aims to save plant life world wide, focusing on plants under threat and those of most use in the future. Seeds are dried, packaged and stored at a sub-zero temperature in Kew's seed bank vault at Wakehurst.

Number of seed collections stored in the Millennium Seed Bank: Three.

Arum pictum is easily grown in a large pot. It should be kept dry in the summer, and watered in the winter (until May).

Arum pictum is grown in the Rock Garden at Kew and may also be on display in the Davies Alpine House when it is flowering (October).

Pressed and dried specimens of Arum pictum are held in Kew’s Herbarium, where they are available to researchers from around the world, by appointment. The details of some of these can be seen on-line in the Herbarium Catalogue.

Search Kew's databases for more information on this species

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