Native Plants
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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
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Thursday - July 08, 2010
From: Holland, MI
Region: Midwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Plant identification
Answered by: Nan Hampton
QUESTION:
Found in a cedar swamp near Wolverine Michigan. Large dinner plate size flat green leaf on a mottled green and brown fleshy stem of about 8 or 10 inches. I first thought it was a tri-leaf plant but it was a deeply lobed leaf. one leaf on each stem. Sorry no pictures.ANSWER:
Were you, perhaps, seeing the leaves of Arisaema triphyllum (Jack in the pulpit) without its flower? The leaves are near the size of a dinner plate with three leaflets per leaf and they grow in moist places. Click here, again here and, once more, here for more information with photos for the Jack-in-the-pulpit.
Podophyllum peltatum (mayapple) is another possibility, but its leaf usually has more than three lobes.
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