Botanic Garden >> Gardening > >> Question and Answer >> About Gardening

Italian Arum: Winter Foliage, Spring Flowers, Summer Dormancy

Italian arum (Arum italicum) emerges in fall, provides glossy green leaves all winter, then produces a white spathe with a central spadix in April. Red berries follow. By summer, foliage dies back completely—the plant goes dormant.

Culture

Thrives in shade to part sun. Self-sows from berries. Combine with hellebores for a dynamic winter-to-spring display.

Italian arum

Italian arum flower

About Gardening: Identifying a Mystery Pear Variety from Fruit and Seed; Italian Cypress in Massachusetts? Use Hardy Columnar Alternatives; How to Get a Wildflower Identified from a Photograph; White Dots on Parsley: Swallowtail Butterfly Eggs or Harmless Residue; Mystery Aroid: Anthurium, Aglaonema, or Dieffenbachia?; Growing Arum italicum (Italian Arum); Millet in the Yard: Birdseed Volunteer; Spigelia (Indian Pink): Native Woodland Wildflower; Selaginella: The Charming Club Moss for Shady Groundcover; Identifying Volunteer Sorghum: Birdseed Escapee

Garden Articles

Identifying a Mysterious Office Plant: Could It Be a Croton?

Dracaena marginata ID and Low‑Light Adaptation

Finding Wild Elderberries: Join a Native Plant Rescue

North American Millipede: Harmless but Startlingly Large

Butterfly Identification Resources for Southeast Gardeners

Golden Larch vs. Common Larch: Clearing Up the Confusion

Society Garlic: Seed Collection and Deer Resistance

Plants

Lanceleaf Greenbriar: Thornless Vine with Edible Shoots

Barred Owl: The "Who Cooks for You?" Hunter

Bloody Dock (Rumex sanguineus): Ornamental or Invasive?

Creasy Greens: The Spring Tonic Wild Cress

Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii): Native Perennial for Damp Shade

Possum Grape (Ampelopsis cordata): Colorful Vine, Weedy Habit

Longleaf Pine: From Grass Stage to Bottlebrush