Wildflower Wednesday

This week's Wildflower Wednesday featured flower is Jack (or Jill) in the Pulpit.

Jack in the Pulpit is a native flower that blooms in woodlands in the spring. It can take 5 or more years for a new plant to produce its first flower.

Male flowers are called Jack and females are called Jill. Depending on the growing conditions, a single plant can switch back and forth between sexes many times throughout its lifetime.

The plant produces crystalline calcium oxalate which grows as needle-like crystals on the plant. If eaten the crystals become embedded in the mouth and cause intense pain, burning, and blisters.

Several Native American tribes used it as a health diagnostic tool. The corm of the plant would be placed in a cup of water, if it circulated four times before it sank the patient would be well, if it didn’t, he would die.

In Pegan traditions, it is associated with the goddess Persephone, who ruled the underworld and represents birth.