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Synonyms: Cuckoo
pint, Arum, Starchwort, Adder's Root, Bobbins, Friar's Cowl, Kings
and Queens, Parson and Clerk, Ramp, Quaker, Wake Robin.
Flowers: May - June.
Lords and Ladies is
a perennial plant of about 25 cm high, which may be patch forming.
It has large arrow-head shaped leaves, which are glossy green and
have black or purplish blotches. When spring arrives, these leaves
may be one of the first to emerge from the ground in shady
habitats. The extraordinary 'flower' has a white-green blotched
sheath, which form a graciously shaped pitcher-like surround (= a
spath) to the purple finger-like spadix. The spadix arises from
the real hidden flower below.
The spath open in the daytime and actually generates heat, which
helps to disperse a faint smell, which is very attractive to
insects, but not to the human nose.
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The
flies can go into the hidden chamber (which is designed as an
insect ski-slope), but an arrangement of hairs prevents them
from flying out again. However this is not meant to be a death
trap, but simply a way to ensure that the insects stay for the
night to pollinate the flowers. The next day the stamens will
mature and shed pollen on the flies This process results in the
withering of the hairs and the insects are free once more to fly
off to find another similar hotel room for the night.
Later on in the
year, all that remains of this plant is the pretty fruiting
stalk with bright orange-red berries, which is the result of a
successfully fertilised flower. These berries are very poisonous
to people: "In spite of their very acrid taste, they have
sometimes been eaten by children, with most injurious results,
being extremely poisonous. One drop of their juice will cause a
burning sensation in the mouth and throat for hours. In the case
of little children who have died from eating the berries, cramp
and convulsions preceded death if no medical aid had been
obtained." (Mrs. Grieve)
Cuckoo pint or
Lord and Ladies grows in woodlands, hedges and ditches. It is
common in most of Britain, but rarer in Scotland.
Lords and Ladies
has a tuberous root, like a small potato. It is brown on the
outside and white within. This tuber is acrid like the rest of
the plant, but this acridity is lost during drying or cooking
and then only the starch is left.
Baked tubers can be eaten and are nutritious, because of the
starch.
Another use of the starch was to stiffen the white ruffs, which
were worn round the neck of Elisabethans. The herbalist Gerard
comments on this practice:
"The most pure and white starch is made of the rootes of
the Cuckoo-pint, but most hurtful for the hands of the
laundresse that have the handling of it; for it chappeth,
blistereth, and maketh the hands rough and rugged and withall
smarting."
Mrs. Grieves says:
"This atarch, however, in spite of Gerard's remarks, form
the Cyprus powder of the Parisians, who used it as a cosmetic
for the skin and Dr, Withering says of this cosmetic formed of
the tuber starch, that 'it is undoubtedly a good and innocent
cosmetic'; and Hogg (Vegetable Kingdom, 1858) reported
its use in Italy to remove freckles from the face and hands.
In parts of France, a custom existed of turning to account the
mucilaginous juice of the plant as a substitute for soap, the
stalks of the plant when in flower being cut and soaked for
three weeks in water, which was dailt poured off carefully and
the residue collected at the bottom of the pan, then dried and
used for laundry work.
Withering quotes Wedelius for the supposition that it was this
plant, under the name of Chara, on which the soldiers of
Caesar's army subsisted when encamped at Dyrrhachium.
A curious belief is recorded by Gerard as coming from Aristotle,
that when bears were half-starved with hibernating and had lain
in their dens forty days without any nourishment, but such as
they get by 'sucking their paws,' they were completely restored
by eating this plant.
The roots, according to Gilbert White, are scratched up and
eaten by thrushes in severe snowy seasons, and the berries are
devoured by several kinds of birds, particularly by pheasants.
Pigs which have eaten the fresh tubers suffered, but none died,
though it acts as an irritant and purgative. As the leaves when
bruised give out a disagreeable odour, they are not spontaneously
eaten by animals, who quickly refuse them."
Like so many
plants with poisonous principles, the root of Lords and ladies
was once much more employed as a herbal medicine, but this
practice is now obsolete.
"The dried root was recommended as a diuretic and
stimulant, but is no longer employed. The British Domestic
herbal describes a case of alarming dropsy with great
constitutional exhaustion treated most successfully with a
medicine composed of Arum and Angelica, which cured in about
three weeks."
"An ointment made by stewing the fresh sliced tuber with
lard is stated to be an efficient cure for ringworm, though the
fresh sliced tuber applied to the skin produces a blister. The
juice of the fresh plant when incorporated with lard has also
been applied locally in the treatment of ringworm." (Mrs.
Grieve)
It is possible to
multiply the plant by sticking one of its leaves in damp soil
(similar to a cutting).
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