ARUM LILIES

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22851, 26 October 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

ARUM LILIES

(By Winifred Chapman)

The beautiful flower known to often see in gardens here. This has everyone as the arum lily is a flowers of a deep buttery yellow, native of South Africa, where it the leaves being very handsome grows wild In vast fields, in par- with silvery-white dots all over tlcular near Table Mountain. them. This has a different manner If you were to look through a of growth from the white variety, flower catalogue in search of a de- as it disappears altogether in winscriptlon of the arum lily, you would ter, the foliage coming up again in look in vain for it under that name, late spring or early summer. it To begin with, it is not a Illy at blooms much later in the season, all, the name having been given. Both kinds grow from rhizomes /no doubt, because of the purity of which are easily injuied, and Will the conspicuous white spathe, which rot away after injury. , , , is not even a petal. This uncom- The arums are flowers which demon arrangement has its purpose, mand warmth and also moisture, like everything else in nature, for so that if they cannot be planted it is designed to attract th» k Insects near water, they must be supplied

necessary to fertilise the real flowess which. ate concealed within. The familiar yellow spike, properly called the spadix, In the centre of the bloom, has the male pollenbearing flowers on the upper part, and these give the yellow appearance. The female flowers, which look like a cluster of small spiky knobs, are lower down. ■ If you look at a fully open arum, you will notice the pollen which falls like white powder. In due time the true flowers ripen, and they then become much swollen, yellow, and Arm. Finally the spathe dies away altogether. The wild arum of England has shorter upright stems, and when the berries are ripe they are more highly coloured than those of the African arum. The berries are poisonous, and the plant is sometimes called cuckoo pint, or lords and ladies. There is another arum which we

with it. The white arum is very frost-tender In this part of the world. The sight o£ the stems hewed to the ground and the leaves damaged by frost Is sad, and“herefora to avoid this catastrophe, we always have to provide shelter for it during winter. As the frosts pass the arum responds quickly to the returning warmth of spring, so that by September it is always m flower, even in exposed gardens. These beautiful flowers look their best when planted in numbers fringing a pond, the white blooms mirrored in the still water. The name arum lily is firmly established in popular usage, but it is botanically known' as Richardia Africana, the latter word indicating the country of its origin. This name has superseded the old name, calla lily, by which it was once known. The yellow variety mentioned above is still sometimes called the yellow calla lily.