Flora of North America species comparison

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Arisaema dracontium

dragon-root, green-dragon
Habit Plants 1.5–9 dm.
Roots

radiating from apex of corm;

corm to 8 cm diam.
Leaves

usually solitary;

petiole medium green or purple-marked;

blade pedately divided, leaflets (5–)7–13(–21), sessile or petiolulate, elliptic to oblanceolate, to 28 × 10 cm, apex acute to acuminate;

central leaflet usually shorter than neighboring ones, these leaflets longest, outer progressively smaller.
Inflorescences

s Spathe light green, sometimes marked with purple, convolute, 3–6(–12) cm;

blade usually scarcely distinguished from tube;

.
Staminate flowers

with 2–4 stamens.
Fruits

oblong or pear-shaped, 7–13 mm.
Seeds

1–2(–6), 3–5 mm diam. 2n = 28, 56.
Sspadix

6–20 cm (or longer), longer than spathe, apex tapering in long slender appendage to 15 cm.

Arisaema dracontium
Phenology Flowering late winter (southern part of range)–late spring.
Habitat Mesic to wet deciduous woods, thickets, and bottoms
Elevation 30–1200 m (100–3900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; ON; QC; e Mexico
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Discussion

Reports of Arisaema dracontium occurring in New Hampshire and Rhode Island have not been substantiated by specimens. The species has also been reported from Nuevo León and Veracruz, Mexico (E. Matuda 1954); more study is needed to determine if these plants are conspecific. Specimens with a wider spathe blade than is typical in A. dracontium have been collected in Florida and Georgia, and these forms may represent intermediates between A. dracontium and the Mexican species A. macrospathum Bentham, which has an expanded spathe blade. D. G. Huttleston (1953) treated A. macrospathum as a subspecies of A. dracontium in his dissertation, but this change in taxonomic status was never formally published.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Araceae > Arisaema
Sibling taxa
A. triphyllum
Synonyms Arum dracontium, Muricauda dracontium
Name authority (Linnaeus) Schott: in H. W. Schott and S. L. Endlicher, Meletemata Botanica 17. (1832)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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