An Iowa Garden

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Arisarum is a small, obscure genus of aroids, containing only three species. One of these species, Arisarum proscideum, is the mouse plant, native to Italy and Spain. It is a little creeper, with thick clumps of shiny, arrowhead-shaped leaves and wee jack in the pulpit-like floral structures that hide under the leaves, with the long "tails" of the spathes, poking up through the foliage. When you part the leaves, you see these little jacks with maroon tops and white bottoms; the effect is like a covey of little mice burrowing down into the plants, with their tails waving in the air. This small plant, while not really invasive, does fairly readily form a thick, expanding clump, so I have the plant surrounded by a black plastic barrier, which you can see in the middle of the top picture. When I think about it, this might be the cutest plant in the whole garden.


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