 Arisaema dracontium (fruit) |
The name Green Dragon conjures up images of forbidden areas of forest, smells of brimstone (all fundamentalists know the smell of brimstone) and drifts of smoke upon the still air.
Until quite late into this century the Green Dragon belched smoke and flame making him easily located within the wood. He ("Greenie" to all his friends) was never all that vocal about his territory, but you always knew his boundaries.
Perhaps in another area, smoke and fire could be a part of the workplace, but no longer. Two forces combined to reduce the Green Dragon to mere plant status. OSHA sued and won the right to regulate fire from the work place of the Green Dragon. Seems the fire was injurious to the skin of sensitive young virgins. No one, not even the mighty Green Dragon, could battle and expect to win over the forces of Political Correctness. In America's world of today, no one, not even "Greenie" can smoke in the workplace.
While certainly not his former self, Green Dragon does remain a formidable garden plant in my opinion.
Arisaema dracontium is a late riser. It does not emerge until well after Jack in the Pulpit (A. triphyllum). In my garden that is around the very last of April with the warmer winters and springs we have been having. Sometimes it is the first part of May. When emerging arisaema are like umbrellas. Completely formed in all parts, the bloom pushes up first with the foliage unfolding along each side. The "bloom", or modified leaf, matures, with the foliage coming up and over the bloom. I have never seen more than one bloom on a stalk.
Size of the plant can vary greatly due to genetics, environment and cultural practices in the garden. Generally the height of the plant is from about 15 inches up to 30 inches, or just a bit more. The tall stout stalk coming up from a shallow tuber has no foliage until the end of the stalk. Then there are 5 to 15 leaflets formed around the outside edge of a half circle some liken to a horseshoe. The half circle sits centered upon the stalk.
When mature the green dragon will "bloom" about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the stalk from the tuber. On a slender stem a fleshy tubular-shaped inflorescence forms with a long pointed "tongue" reaching upward along side the stalk. This modified leaf can be up to two inches or more in length with the tongue reaching up to six inches or more. I have seen the various colorations of the tongue ranging from the same green as the rest of the plant to orangey-yellow.
While walking the wood looking for Arisaema dracontium the best places to look are wet shaded areas. I found my first plant growing in my own back yard at the edge of a wood in a drainage ditch. Seepage areas, floodplains, the edge of small steams are primary places of discovery. However, the plant doesn't demand that environment in the garden. I have several in my garden with some at the base of a mature tree in rocky soil. The ones lacking the additional moisture simply do not get as large as the ones that do. Good rich humus and leafy loose mulch that decays produces a nicer plant in the garden as well. As with any other plant in the garden, the better the environment the better the plant performs. If you choose to use fertilizer, which I do not, be very careful. Arisaema do not need a lot of nitrogen and can easily burn.
I have a "giant" form of Arisaema dracontium that occurred in my garden some years back. While walking a path I noticed a single green dragon coming up from the middle of a drift of Begonia grandis. Somehow it appeared "different" from the others in my garden. It resembled an A. hetrophyllum. All parts are more substantial than the "normal" species. I moved the plant to a different location and it has been reaching a height of 5 to 6 « feet each year for several years now. It is also a very heavy producer of seed and does a decent job of producing offsets. There are now several mature plants, along with immature off-sets, on a steep hillside with Christmas ferns and large limestone rocks as company.
The green dragon contributes not only great architecture to gardens, it also lends a sense of uniqueness. The most colorful part of having a mature green dragon is the seeds. After blooming and seed set, come late August and September, the shiny green clusters of seeds will turn to scarlet waxy berries lying across the green of nearby plants. I find the show of seeds to be as colorful as any perennial bloom.
Arisaema dracontium always looks good with ferns as companions. Coming up out of a drift on almost any shallow-rooted perennial, such as Begonia grandis or sinensis is a favorite. The groundcover partridge berry (Mitchella repens) is probably my favorite companion.