Jack
in the Pulpit photographed at
Stillman on 5/17/08
It is the peculiar design of its blossom that has earned this plant
its common name. It sports a striped green hood or "pulpit" which
curls over "Jack," a club-shaped organ known as a spadix. It is at the
base of the spadix, where the tiny flowers, either male or female, are
to be found. How can you tell a male Jack from a female Jill?
The simple answer is count the leaves. If it only has one
three-parted leaf, it's a male. If it has two, it's a female. And
yes, to you Latin scholars, the species name, triphyllum, refers to
this wildflower's three-parted leaf.
The fascinating part of this species' natural history is that a
particular plant's gender is negotiable. That is to say, one year's
Jack may be next year's Jill. If a large female has a few bad years,
researchers have found that in the following year it may produce only
one leaf and flower as a male. The reverse is also true. Should that
scrawny male enjoy good growing conditions, it can regain its status
as a large, multi-leaved female.
This sequential hermaphroditism makes me wonder what we should
properly call this wildflower. Jack-in-the-Pulpit? Jill-in-the-Pulpit?
Wait a second, I've got it. Rue Paul-in-the-pulpit.