Arum 'Chameleon'

My serious plant hunting got off to a good start this weekend with this stunning Lords-and-Ladies cultivar emerging from a hedge in Ben Rhydding. Arum 'Chameleon' is a relatively new cultivar, so its not one that I would expect to be planted (this plant was emerging out of the church boundary hedge) or to self-seed true to form.

The consensus seems to be that this cultivar is likely to be derived from a cross between the native Arum maculatum and the non-native Arum italicum subsp. italicum (increasingly commonly naturalised). However, no one knows for sure.

Unusual Arums

Back in late winter (just before the year took a strange turn) I found a large stand of an unusual looking Arum under trees along an old track near Mickletown (VC63). It was in full leaf and yet there were no others around either here or locally, which struck me as odd. It seemed far too early for Lords-and-Ladies (Arum maculatum) to be both up and so far advanced. My gut feeling was it had to be the unmarked form of Italian Lords-and-Ladies (Arum italicum subsp. neglectum) but I wanted to see it in flower to be sure, something I was not able to achieve despite regular trips over spring and early summer (frustratingly, come October I realised it must have flowered as there was one fruiting stem). The leaves looked a good match to some images online but not enough for me to be certain. Perhaps relevant to this, I later found out that early season foliage differs in shape from late season foliage. The following photos were taken in April 2020 once Lords-and-Ladies had emerged, the pale veins of the Italian Lords-and-Ladies were quite obvious when compared against the former.

With that in mind, the next thing to do was go and look for it this autumn, as this would clinch the identification. So in October with the marked form of Italian Lords-and-Ladies (Arum italicum subsp. italicum) popping up all over the place I went for a look. Annoyingly there was no trace, but all was not lost as subsp. neglectum is reputed to emerge later than subsp. italicum. By the time of my second trip in early November it was just emerging. A good result, case closed. 

The only remaining question is how did it get there? Yorkshire is far outside its native range. While it could be an escape from cultivation it is a relatively obscure one, even in a county with more than its fair share of unusual escapes - if it can be grown in Yorkshire you can be certain someone is somewhere! I can't think why anyone would specifically choose this species, short of there being an Aroid fanatic living in Mickletown. There is perhaps a slim possibility that it came in with daffodil bulbs originating from a grower in South-West England, as the margins of this track support a diverse mixture of old fashioned cultivars in the spring. Certainly the size of the clump indicates it has been there for a number of years, perhaps decades.

Last photo taken November 2020

I had to wait until September 2020 for my next unusual Arum, when this clump was well advanced at Ouzlewell Green (VC63). Clearly it has a relationship to the marked form of Italian Lords-and-Ladies, but the leaf shape is not typical, nor is the yellow-tinged venation. I'm going to keep an eye on this, and again try to see in flower, but at present I think it can only be a hybrid will Lords-and-Ladies.

Ilkley to Addingham Moorside

My trip over to Ilkley (VC64) at the weekend proved more eventful than I could have hoped. First slipping off a boulder and falling backwards into the beck at Heber's Ghyll and then, after salvaging my notebook from the water, regaining my composure and checking for broken bones, finding a particularly nice bramble in the wood.

Following advice from David Earl this seems to be Thornless Blackberry (Rubus canadensis), a native of North America. It has impressively tall, and typically biennial, arching canes with no prickles. In this case the flowers were particularly large and impressive, and from a distance I thought I was approaching a bush of Mock-orange (Philadelphus sp.) as it was so showy. This is the first record for VC64, and also seems to be the first for Yorkshire.

In a wooded ghyll in Ilkley proper there was a small colony of this enormous Lord's and Ladies. A problem for another day but looking too big to be Italian Lord's and Ladies (Arum italicum) proper, despite the veining on the leaves. For scale, the OS map in the photo is approximately 22cm tall.

At the Old Bridge it was nice to finally see the thriving Fairy Foxglove (Erinus alpinus) colony in flower. I had not appreciated that there was a mix of pink and white flowered plants here. Photo of the latter (var. albus) below.

Elsewhere as a street weed was a double-flowered (technically semi-double so fertile) form of Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis cambrica 'Flore Pleno') that I had read about but never seen before, despite the abundance of this species as a naturalised plant in the VC. Terrible photo but you get the idea.

In Panorama Woods there is an abundance of Persian Ivy (Hedera colchica). It is well known here but I don't think anyone before has noted this as being the original introduced form i.e. var. dentata or 'Dentata' (depending on preference). Note the small teeth on the leaf margins.

Over at Addingham Moorside I stumbled over some nice mire and species-rich grassland communities. Some of the highlights included Bulbous Rush (Juncus bulbosus subsp. kochii), Creeping Forget-me-not (Myosotis secunda) and (Pedicularis sylvatica subsp. sylvatica).

Italian Lords-and-Ladies

Nick Millar has just sent me a batch of interesting records made this year. Among these is a new location for Italian Lords-and-Ladies (Arum italicum ssp. italicum) at Harrison Way, St Ives (VC31). This attractive winter foliage plant seems to be on the increase, with this being the fifth record of this garden escape.