Arum

Studio Pozzi Taubert studio.pozzitaubert@tiscali.it
Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:41:20 PDT
I think I haven't understood what you mean by cultivar..  but " A.  
marmoratum "  grows wild near my house....

Here in the wild, on our hills, we can see Arum plants with plain  
green leaves,( the veins may be sometimes pale green), usually with a  
smooth surface of the leaf which is a bit tender.. they usually  
whiter and disappear in winter (also in this mild winter they  
disappeared in December and have begun sprouting two months ago) ;
we can find just near them a different plant:  "A. marmoratum " with  
marked stripes on the veins from white to yellowish ( ivory), and the  
leaf is stronger and not so smooth but waved. Theese leaves can  
survive the whole winter even with a thick layer of snow covering  
them, the new leaves appear later ( the plants began producing new  
leaves fiftheen/twenty days  ago); the spathe is able to last some  
days more than those produced from the former plant and the colour is  
creamy while the first is whitish.

I never saw in the woods a plant with intermedium characters, ( this  
of course, doesn't mean that such hybrids do not exist, but I am   
sure it isn't so easy they can appear and survive in wild) .

We can find at last two different plants, a smaller one just high as  
the two above ( 40/50 cm) with white or grey-white spots on the  
leaves and onother plant much taller (70/80 cm) with similar spots on  
wider leaves,   with bigger spathes and bigger tubers; we usually  
call theese two plants " A. maculatum ".

Arum pictum, ( a nice name ),  isn't acceptable in my opinion... as  
it is generic and doesn't explain the different patterns on the leaves.

All perfectly hardy here.

Hoping this can help....despite my English.

Giorgio Pozzi
Travedona (Varese)
Northern Italy
zone 8 this warm winter


> I have no doubt that Arum concinnatum is distinct from A. italicum,  
> and it
> certainly has no connection with the forms variously known as  
> 'Marmoratum',
> 'Pictum' (or however you want to write them) and a growing list of  
> cultivars
> selected from the general gene pool. This is a very good example of  
> the
> benefits of the horticultural group system whereby similar plants  
> can be
> covered by a Group name, and exceptional cultivars distinguished by a
> cultivar name. I would suspect that in this case Marmoratum Group  
> would be
> the preferred name for A. italicum (subsp. italicum) with strongly
> white-veined leaves. The name 'Pictum' has confusion potential with  
> the
> autumn-flowering Arum pictum and is best avoided. Many A. italicum  
> do not
> have these extensive  white veins, and are either totally unmarked  
> or with
> smaller patches of white or grey on the upper surface of the leaves.
>


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