Arisaema dracontium

Arisaema dracontium
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Alismatales
Family:	Araceae
Subfamily:	Aroideae
Tribe:	Arisaemateae
Genus:	Arisaema
Species:	A. dracontium
Binomial name
Arisaema dracontium (L.) Schott, 1832

Arisaema dracontium (Dragon-root, Green dragon) is a herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Arisaema and the family Araceae. It is native to North America from Quebec to Minnesota south to Florida and Texas, where it is found growing in damp woods. It has also been reported from northeastern Mexico (Nuevo León + Veracruz)^[1] Plants grow 20–50 centimetres (7.9–19.7 in) tall when in bloom and after flowering reach 100 centimetres (39 in), they grow from a corm.^[2] Normally a single leaf is produced with long petioles, the leaf is composed of 7 to 13 leaflets with the center leaflet the largest and leaflets becoming smaller as they are produced on the outside surface, the leaflets are held out horizontally over the plant. During flowering in spring a single, slender, green spathe 3–6 centimetres (1.2–2.4 in) long is produced that covers a tapering, long thin spadix. The tall like spadix grows out around the top of the spathe. After flowering, up to 150 berries are produced in a club shaped column. In late summer the green berries turn orange-red, each berry produces 1 to 3 seeds.^[3] It is listed as a vulnerable species in Canada.

Classification

Within the genus Arisaema, A. dracontium is classified in the section Tortuosa and is most closely related to the Mexican A. macrophyllum. In fact, A. macrophyllum has sometimes been considered a subspecies of A. dracontium. The rest of the section contains species from east Asia and India. A. dracontium is not a close relative to the other American Arisaema species, A. triphyllum (jack-in-the-pulpit), which is in a different section of Arisaema.^[4]

References