My husband read my previous post and insisted that I show him those three-leaved plants right away. That saved me the effort of having to remember to mention them to him, and I happily went outside with him and pointed them out. Here are some pictures of the plants in question:
It would be easy to assume that this was poison ivy. The “three leaves, let it be” reflex runs deep. What helps to convince me that it’s not poison ivy is that the three leaves are all connected to the stem at the same point. On poison ivy, the two lower leaves are directly across from one another and the top leaf sticks out a bit more.
This one is less shiny, more obviously not poison ivy.
My husband was not impressed by the plants. He said, “Those are Nothing Plants. I’ve killed them before.” I can hardly blame him for treating them that way. They’re not very interesting to look at right now. But I’ve asked him to leave them alone, because I am reasonably certain that they’re Jack-in-the-pulpit, which you can read about at Wikipedia, the U.S. Forest Service, and Minnesota Wildflowers.
How did I come to that conclusion? Each plant has three leaves (actually, a single leaf with three leaflets) that are arranged at roughly 12:00, 3:00, and 9:00, as distinguished from trillium, which is said to be more like 12:00, 4:00, and 8:00. Looking closer at a leaflet, there’s another clue.
The vein running around the edge of leaflet is a characteristic of Jack-in-the pulpit. Of course, what would easily prove the case would be Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers, because they are unmistakable. But, as you can see from the pictures, these plants are not blooming. That means that they won’t bloom this year, because Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers come out before the leaves do. It’s not strange that there aren’t any flowers, though, because Jack-in-the-pulpit plants that grow from seed can take several years to bloom. We’ll just have to be patient and watch for them again over the next few springs.
As Marshall and I were walking outside the other evening, he asked me if people would think our yard was ugly. I had to tell him that the answer is yes. Our yard would be considered by most people to be both ugly and unkempt. Our neighbor, who is trying to sell his house, probably hates us. Most homebuyers want neat plots with green, grassy lawns, and they’d prefer prospective neighbors to have the the same. But that’s just too bad for them. I prefer wildflowers.
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