Plant
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Arisaema triphyllum
Also known as: Indian turnip, Jack-in-the-pulpit, wake robin
A distinctive native spring-flowering perennial of moist deciduous forests — a single hooded flower structure ('the pulpit') with a club-shaped spadix ('Jack') projecting upward inside it. Three-leaflet compound leaves. Common across Staten Island's Greenbelt and moist forest understory. Indigenous medicinal use; named 'Indian turnip' for the corm, which can be safely eaten only after extensive drying or roasting (raw corm contains calcium-oxalate crystals that cause severe burning).
Scientific
Arisaema triphyllum is a 1–2 ft perennial of moist deciduous forests across eastern North America. Distinctive flower structure: a hooded green-and-purple-striped spathe (“the pulpit”) arching over a club-shaped spadix (“Jack”) that bears tiny actual flowers near its base. Single or paired three-leaflet compound leaves on tall stalks.
Famously sex-changing — individual plants can change sex year-to-year based on resource availability. Plants with sufficient resources (especially soil nitrogen and stored corm reserves) become female; those with less become male; plants with very little stay vegetative without flowering.
Bright red berries form on the spadix in late summer if pollinated, persisting after the rest of the plant has withered.
The corm contains calcium-oxalate crystals that cause severe oral burning when raw — accidentally tasting one is intensely unpleasant. Northeastern indigenous peoples processed the corm by extensive drying or roasting (months of drying followed by careful preparation), which broke down the calcium oxalate and produced an edible starch source.
On Staten Island
Common across the Greenbelt and moist forest understory borough-wide. Spring flowering (April–May) is one of the more-distinctive native wildflower events on the borough. Often associated with [[mayapple|mayapple]], [[trout-lily|trout lily]], and trillium in the same forest sites.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Instance of: [[indigenous-foodways]]
- Member of: [[plants]]
- Contained by: [[staten-island]]
Sources
- USDA NRCS Plants Database: jack-in-the-pulpit
- Northeastern indigenous-foodways documentation
- Long-term Arisaema sex-change ecology research
Rooted in life.
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