Arisarum vulgare

Small, seasonally dormant herbs, stem an ovoid to cylindric tuber or slender rhizome (A. proboscideum) with stolons. Leaves 1 - 2( -3); petiole often sparsely spotted, sheath short; lamina cordate-sagittate to subhastate; primary lateral veins pinnate and also arising at petiole insertion, forming submarginal collective vein, 2 marginal veins also present, higher order venation reticulate. Inflorescence solitary, appearing with leaves; peduncle shorter or equalling leaf, often spotted; spathe eventually evanescent, tube erect, margins connate, cylindric to subventricose, slightly constricted at apex, white or with white to pale green longitudinal stripes, blade fornicate, gaping, sometimes subtomentose, apex cuspidate or drawn out into a very long, erect to twisted thread, greenish or brownish or purple-brown; spadix with female zone adnate to spathe, 2 - 5-flowered, contiguous with male zone, male zone laxly flowered, extending for more than half spathe tube length, appendix naked, either stipitate with massive apical knob, or stipitate with thick, clavate, basally truncate, fungoid, apical region, or not stipitate and slenderly clavate. Flowers unisexual, perigone absent. Staminate flowers 1-androus, filament terete, as long or longer than anther, anther peltately attached, circular, connective slender, thecae apically confluent, dehiscing by single continuous slit; pistillate flowers ovary 1-locular, depressed-globose, ovules many, orthotropous, funicle short, placenta basal, stylar region ± abruptly narrowed, stigma small, subhemispheric; berry hemispheric, flattened at apex with elevated angled margins, few-seeded, pericarp carnose-leathery, style base persistent; seed ovoid, with large, irregularly conoid strophiole (aril), testa longitudinally rugose, embryo terete, straight, axile, endosperm copious. 2n = 28, 42, 56.

DISTRIBUTION. Mediterranean Europe, Macaronesia:– Alb Albania, Algeria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France (incl. Corsica), Greece (incl. Crete), Israel, Italy (incl. Sardinia, Sicily), Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Malta, Morocco, Portugal (incl. Azores), Serbia, Slovenia, Spain (incl. Balearics, Canary Is.), Syria, Tunisia, Turkey.

ECOLOGY. Warm temperate scrub and woodland; geophytes, on stony ground in macchie ("maquis"), between rocks or under trees and shrubs.

ETYMOLOGY. Derived from the Greek word arisaron (as used by Dioscorides in reference to aris, aridos, the name of a small herb mentioned by Pliny, possibly Arisarum itself and aron (Arum)).

Species name:	Arisarum vulgare Targ. Tozz.
Author(s):	Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti; Italy, 1712-1783
General names:	Friar's Cowl, Arison
Maltese name:	Garni tal-Pipi
Plant Family:	Araceae (Arum Family)
Name Derivation:	Arisarum = Name first given by Dioschorides for A. vulgare; (Greek). vulgare = Common or ordinary, since it is found in abundant numbers. (Latin)