Arisaema triphyllum 
There are few cooler finds along a woodland hike than spotting Jack-in-the-pulpit. This interesting little guy…err…gal…well, that’s one of the cool parts. These plants are able to change sexes as they age, with young flowering plants producing only male flowers, and become hermaphroditic as they age. As the younger flowering plants go dormant, the mature hermaphrodidtic plants produce a cluster of bright red berries that look so cool against the greens and browns on the forest floor.
 
Enough with the anatomy lesson, Jack-in-the-pulpit look like a minature Jurassic era tropical plant, stuck in the middle of the woods of New England. The plant gets it’s unusual name from its appearance. The spadix (Jack) is encased by the often purple striped spadix (pulpit), and peeks out from underneath the spadix hood. So fun!
 
Think carefully about where you want to plant these, they do best in deep shade with rich woodland soils. Plant them where you want them to stay, they do not transplant well and can take up to 5 years to flower.