Plant of the week: Friar’s Cowl

Name: Friar’s Cowl (Arisarum vulgare)

Otherwise known as: Jack-in-the Pulpit, Snake Grass

Habitat: A tubiferous perennial member of the Aracaceae family growing to 30cm in moist soils in Mediterranean woodlands. The plant grows from a walnut-sized tuber with soft, fleshy stems that support bright green, heart-shaped leaves surrounding the bizarre looking green/purple cowl, which is a pulpit-shaped spathe that has a tongue-like spadix. All parts of the plant are poisonous.

What does it do: Friar’s Cowl, like most members of the Aracaceae, contains Calcium oxalates, known as raphides, which are tiny, needle like crystals that cause severe irritation on contact with the eyes and mucous membranes, and in some cases where the juice has been ingested will cause the tongue to swell dramatically, that can in rare cases, lead to suffocation. It also affects the central nervous system. In many Mediterranean countries the juice from the plant was a standard remedy for snake bite and as a rodenticide. In Cyprus mild preparations were made from the root to treat infections of the respiratory system.

Although Friar’s Cowl is poisonous, in times of famine the walnut shaped tubers are eaten; the poison is neutralised by drying and washing. In parts of North Africa the roots are dried and pickled.

Recent research has revealed that the plant contains a pyrrolide alkaloid, B-Gugaine that causes liver degeneration in rats and will prove valuable as a control.

Friars Cowl is a favoured ground coverer and will bloom in late spring.

Next dangerous plant              Spartium