Quiz # 20

Chapter 9a: An Introduction to Genomics

There's NO QUIZ today, but you WILL get +10 pts for the quiz when you attend the lecture this afternoon at 14:30 in Massengill Auditorium!

Jack or Jill in the Pulpit?
An Interdisclipinary Approach
Jack in the Pulpit

Original Botanical Art by Ellen S.Beeken

Jack-in-the-pulpit (Ariseama triphyllum (L.) Schott)

19. JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT, INDIAN TURNIP

Arisaema triphyllum

(aroid family)

TOXICITY RATING: Low.

ANIMALS AFFECTED: All animals may be affected.

DANGEROUS PARTS OF PLANT: Bulbs, stems, possibly leaves.

CLASS OF SIGNS: Oral and gastric irritation, mouth and throat swelling on rare occasions may be severe enough to affect breathing.

PLANT DESCRIPTION: These herbaceous perennials (fig. 19) pop up in spring in Indiana woodlands. They grow 1 to 2 feet tall from a tuberous root. The large leaves are three-parted, smooth-margined, and net-veined. Each plant produces one bloom beneath the leaves on a short stalk. The "jack" is a fleshy green spike ("spadix") bearing a number of inconspicuous male and female flowers. The most noticeable part of the bloom is the "pulpit", a modified leaf ("spathe") that wraps around and hides the spadix. It may be all green or striped with red or reddish-violet. In late summer the spathe falls away, revealing a cluster of bright red berries.

Jack side barSIGNS and FIRST AID: See the section for the Aroid discussion. Rarely is enough of this plant consumed to cause a problem, but the potential exists, especially in spring when other forages are not readily available and if the livestock have access to a wooded area. Signs are self-limiting, and a veterinarian only needs to be contacted if signs do not resolve or if breathing is affected.

PREVENTION: Jack-in-the-Pulpit grows in wooded, shaded areas in the spring, so limit animal access to these areas when plants begin to emerge.


Jack-in-the-Pulpit

The Silent Preacher

Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a member of the Arum family, a small group of primitive flowering plants whose name comes from the Arabic word for “fire”. Anyone who has tasted the raw root quickly understands the meaning. This herbaceous perennial grows in damp or shady places. He stands short or tall, depending on his food. He was a friend of many Indians and is a foe of certain insects. He may become a she, and then a he again. The common folk name is perfect. The long spathe looks like an old-fashioned pulpit, complete with overhead baffle to amplify and project sermons through-out the church. For the plant, however, the hood is simply an umbrella, preventing the vertical, tubelike spathe from filling with rainwater that could drown the flowers or wash away their pollen. “Jack” is the spadix, the clublike, flower-bearing stick that stands erect in the pulpit with just the tips protruding to survey his “congregation”. Jack was a common colloquialism for “fellow” or”guy”, especially in England. In the fall, red berries are born in a dense egg-shaped cluster. The plants are monoclinous; each season however, flowers of just one sex are produced. For about two years staminate flowers are formed; in subsequent seasons pistillate flowers are produced. Also called Indian Turnip several Indian Bands used the dried and powdered root in small doses for medicinal purposes. One of the chief constituents of the root is starch. An old legend that the purple color of the spathes comes from the blood of Christ at the crucifixion, inspired a nineteenth-century poet.

Beneath the cross it grew;
And in the case-like hollow of the leaf
Catching from that dread shower of agony
A few mysterious drops, transmitted thus
Unto the groves and hills their healing stains
A heritage, for storm or vernal shower
Never to blow away.




Jack in the pulpit




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Last modified on: 2 February, 2000 by Dave Ussery