Choosing which common name to use for this weirdly wonderful native plant is complicated by there being around 90 listed. Many, for obvious reasons are gender related and slightly rude eg Willy lily, Naked Boys. The pint in cuckoo pint, pronounced as in mint is an abbreviation of “pintle”, meaning penis. The names Starchwort and Lords-and-Ladies link to the historic use of its root in laundries to starch the ruffs worn around the necks of the gentry during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Cuckoo-pint has evolved an extraordinary way of attracting their favourite pollinators, Owl Midgies whose larvae feed on decaying matter. The flower spike (spadix) uses energy from starch in the tuber to raise its temperature by up to 15 degrees C above ambient whilst emitting a smell of decay - just what an owl midge likes. Once drawn in, the flies slide down the rather slippy green “hoody” or Spathe and are trapped. Photo 2 shows their jailhouse with the white female flowers at the bottom, the circle of brown male ones in top and the entrapping hairs. Pollination of the female flowers is the signal for the male flowers to release a dusting of pollen and the “prison gate” of hairs to shrivel, releasing the flies to go on their way to be fooled by the next cuckoo-pint. Devious plant!
Photo three shows a typical mature leaf (though only some have spots, photo4). Foragers beware. The young leaves are much less distinctive and often grow hidden among garlic leaves. This is not a plant you want in your sandwich.
All parts of Arum maculatum are poisonous, containing saponin oxalates with highly irritant needle-shaped crystal structure. Its demotion in recent times from valued medicinal plant and food source to “plant to stay well away from” is perhaps a tale of our loss of ancient plant knowledge and the processing skills to detoxify.
Soon we will be seeing spikes of bright red Cuckoo-pint berries - a sign the owl midgies have done their job.
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