Last week I found an arum lily behind our garden fence. On Sunday afternoon I found another fine specimen growing in the shade of the lime tree walk in our nearby Linden Field. I had gone there to photograph the lime trees coming into leaf, and the avenue was a haven of leaf shadow and dappled light, and wonderfully cool in our unexpected heatwave. There was also the heady whiff of wild garlic. The plants whose leaves I had been cropping earlier in the year were bursting with white star flowers. You can eat those too. But you definitely can’t eat the arum lily, also known as Cuckoo-pint (pint to rhyme with mint), Lords-and-Ladies, Parson in the pulpit and Willy lily – though the roots were apparently once crushed to make household starch for crisping up Elizabethan ruffs (Richard Mabey Flora Britannica).
Tish Farrell 
That’s a lovely Arum Lily. No ransoms here, just wild onions now flowering all along the roadside too. They look very pretty though.
🙂
That arum lily is an unusual colour, I only know the white ones and another one with stripes of green, not all green as that one looks to be
Yes these wild ones are mostly green or greenish-yellow. Sometimes the sheaths have spots too.
I read up a while back that every member of the Lily Family is poisonous. With all the animals running around at our spot it gave us cause for concern for while. Eventually we became pragmatic as we’d never seen one of the cats or dogs nibble anything but grass. But I suppose it is wise to be alert to such things – just in case.
Yes. Good to keep an eye out. But it’s hard to exclude all risks to animals from a garden.
Like Pauline, I’ve never seen an arum lily that colour. It is such a delicate green; quite lovely.
Glad to give you a new flower 🙂
🙂
I know very little about the arum lily. But they are certainly very beautiful and I like the way you work with the light and dark tones, which make the flower look very special.
Thank you, Peter. I think I need to give all the credit to the lily though. It was growing in such a good spot 🙂
Love all those flowers names, Tish. I spent quite some time wandering along the back trails in the park yesterday morning, enjoying the wildflowers and also discovered lots of wild garlic.
janet
Nothing like a good wander on less-trodden paths 🙂
I have had one in white .Wonder where it went.?
Sorry if it’s gone AWOL.
Wonderful captures for this week. 😀
Thank you, Cee.
How fascinating that arum lily roots were once used as starch. Maybe there are applications for modern day artisans there. The while garlic flowers must be real spots of brightness in the forest depths.
I gather from Mabey that arum starch was pretty caustic, which might account for why we have forgotten about it. But yes, the wild garlic flowers are lighting up the shady banks of the old railway line that runs beside the Linden Walk.
Ah – well I won’t be digging up arum lily roots then. 🙂
I really have to process some pictures! I envy yours 🙂
Thank you.
That lily is wonderful. Reminds me of Chihuly.
Well thank you for that intro to Chihuly. Now I’ve had a quick look at his work, I can see what you mean.
I only know him because icelandpenny (https://icelandpenny.com) has been running across his work in Canada.
Wow! I love it!
Thank you!
So pretty.
I prefer the wild arum to the cultivated, much more subtle and elegant.
I do agree.
SSS = simply stunning and splendid… ❤
Merci, Melanie. Lovely to hear from you 🙂