Plant identification help

[Mouse]

I've tried googling all sorts and now it's really bothering me. Lots of smart people here so I thought it worth a go...

Both plants grow in the same woods in Somerset where I walk the dog. The purple things are teeny and grow near a lake. The yellow ones (which look a bit like calla lilies to me) are mahoosive and grow in boggy areas all over the place. Both are flowering now.





Any ideas what they are?

edit: just found the purple ones are toothwort! Any help on the yellow ones would be great.

[Dave]

I think they are Lords and Ladies. There are different types - those are Bog Arum if they grow red berries later. They like swamps and lake sides.

And the first one is Purple Toothwort.

I used the key in the "Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe" book. I've seen Lords and Ladies before but not the Toothwort.

[alchemist]

Weren't the purple ones in Alien?

[Mouse]

Thanks Dave, yeah I found the purple toothwort after some searching!

They do look like aliens, alc!

They yellow ones aren't Lords and Ladies (we have those growing behind our house!) They're about four times the size and bright yellow, rather than green. And, now I've done some better searching, I've found out they're called Skunk Cabbages!
http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_pla...ican_and_asian

[Moonbat]

toothwort? Plants have the best names.

Sorry I can't help on the yellow ones Mouse.

[Mouse]

Found it now, Moonbat, thanks! (I'm sure I'll have others to add to this thread and next time I'll try not to answer my own questions!)

I now know what the stink is in the woods - we're always trying to work out which plant it was that smelled so bad. Skunk cabbage. I geddit.

[springs]

They look like the yellow ones that grow beside the derry line at Downhill? I'm pretty sure they're the same ones, but there's no info in this neck of the woods.... (translink don't do links to pretty flowers....)

[pyan]

American skunk-cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) & Asian skunk-cabbage (L. camtschatcensis) are both invasive non-native plants that destroy native species with a leaf-span that covers the ground blocking off the light.

Although they're not yet listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, there's a strong opinion that they should be. (Schedule 9 makes it a criminal offence to release or transplant certain species of animals and plants into the wild. Japanese Knotweed is the best known example of a Schedule 9 plant). The main problem with them is that nothing uses them as food in this country, and they just keep growing and growing until they blot out everything over a large area. Oh, and as you say, they stink!...

[Ursa major]

Does their lack of a Schedule 9 classification mean that they can't be legally removed from the wild (to be destroyed, not transplanted) by the general public?


(To be honest, I have no idea what the law on uprooting any wild plant is, although I wouldn't pick wildflowers or plants to take home whatever the legal position.)

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

The yellow ones look like what we here in Oregon call "skunk cabbage"-do they let off an odor? If not, then I wouldn't know.


Oops, nevermind. Mouse already identified them.

Rather nasty things they are, actually. There's a reason for their name.

[Alex, The G and T]

The Yellow ones are skunk cabbage. The Purple ones are Ren-Faire Druid priest posers.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by pyan

American skunk-cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) & Asian skunk-cabbage (L. camtschatcensis) are both invasive non-native plants that destroy native species with a leaf-span that covers the ground blocking off the light.

Yeah, they're huge!!

Although they're not yet listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, there's a strong opinion that they should be. (Schedule 9 makes it a criminal offence to release or transplant certain species of animals and plants into the wild. Japanese Knotweed is the best known example of a Schedule 9 plant). The main problem with them is that nothing uses them as food in this country, and they just keep growing and growing until they blot out everything over a large area. Oh, and as you say, they stink!...

They do stink - we never realised it was them though, we thought it was one of the other plants.

There are these trees at the woods which have the prettiest little bellflowers on... but when they're out they stink of dog poo! We just call them dog poo trees. I did know the actual name but I've completely forgotten it.

Is balsam on that Schedule 9 thing, py? That's all over the place too.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Mouse

Is balsam on that Schedule 9 thing, py? That's all over the place too.

Yes, it crowds out native species and then dies back almost completely in winter, leaving riverbanks liable to erosion. You can spray it off quite easily (if you've got a City & Guilds Land Based Services pesticides certificate of competence (Pa1/Pa6)) but the problem is that, like Japanese Knotweed, disposal is difficult: it can't go into landfill, and you need a contractor with a hazardous waste‎ removal license to take it away...

[Mouse]

It's pretty, it's a shame it kills off all the native plants.

Here's a new one then, this one is a bush. The leaves go red, like in this pic, and then it gets white paper-like bell flowers on it around this time of year. (It's not the dog poo tree - has no smell.) Grows in the woods.

[pyan]

Does it look like this in full flower?