Species
+

Arisaema triphyllum (L.) Schott

Indian-turnip, Jack In The Pulpit, Jack-in-the-pulpit, jack-in-the-pulpit

Climate known 57 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Arisaema triphyllum, the Jack-in-the-pulpit, is a species of flowering plant in the arum family Araceae. It is a member of the Arisaema triphyllum complex, a group of four or five closely related taxa in eastern North America. The specific name triphyllum means "three-leaved", a characteristic feature of the species, which is also referred to as Indian turnip, bog onion, and brown dragon.

Text from Wikipedia, “Arisaema triphyllum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Arisaema

Arisaema is a large and diverse genus of the flowering plant family Araceae. The largest concentration of species is in China and Japan, with other species native to other parts of southern Asia as well as eastern and central Africa, Mexico and eastern North America. Asiatic species are often called cobra lilies, while western species are often called jack-in-the-pulpit; both names refer to the distinctive appearance of the flower, which consists of an erect central spadix rising from a spathe.

Text from Wikipedia, “Arisaema”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araceae
Described by
(L.) Schott
Native to
Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia +41
Wild records
1973 in range· 404 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1101mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 108 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Araceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1101 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 70 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -17.7 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Alocasia atrorubens (Aiton) Raf.; Alocasia lobata Raf.; Alocasia triphylla (L.) Raf.; Arisaema atrorubens (Aiton) Blume; Arisaema atrorubens f. pallascens (Sims) Raymond and 32 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Araceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (789 mm of 1101 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 26.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1101 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 70 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1101 mm a year at the habitat, 789 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 108 mm, driest February at 70 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 873 mm to 1361 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -17.7 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -17.7 °C, the absolute minimum -27.2 °C, about 136 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -7.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -13.9 °C to -1.8 °C), warmest day 27.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is -17.7 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Araceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -0 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Jul; mean night from -8 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1101 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1558 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -27.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-27.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 10–40RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1558 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-0 / -5–72 / -3–97 / 3–1414 / 10–1920 / 17–2425 / 22–2927 / 24–3126 / 24–3022 / 19–2615 / 12–209 / 5–142 / -2–8
Night °C-8 / -14–-2-7 / -12–-0-2 / -7–44 / 1–910 / 7–1415 / 13–1918 / 16–2118 / 15–2114 / 11–178 / 5–112 / -2–6-4 / -10–0
Rain mm76 / 32–10070 / 34–9881 / 50–11792 / 73–117104 / 85–129108 / 86–130108 / 87–13399 / 82–12499 / 85–11990 / 71–12089 / 61–11985 / 42–117
DLI12 / 10–1518 / 17–2026 / 25–2732 / 31–3437 / 35–3940 / 38–4239 / 37–4134 / 33–3627 / 24–2919 / 16–2312 / 10–1610 / 8–13
RH %61 / 57–6459 / 56–6357 / 55–5956 / 54–5757 / 55–5958 / 57–6159 / 57–6160 / 58–6260 / 57–6159 / 57–6160 / 57–6261 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 1558 grid cells holding the 1865 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 949:1938 (42.525, -83.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -17.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1558 distinct grid cells holding the 1865 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 949:1938 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.50_-83.125, lapse-corrected -34 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 192 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeManitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker39.222, -76.89 · in the densest population, 1124 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1973 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 404 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 22 km away. 108 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1973 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Arisaema triphyllumArisaema triphyllumArisaema triphyllumArisaema triphyllumArisaema triphyllumArisaema triphyllumArisaema triphyllumArisaema triphyllum

Photographs: (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Loïc Mathieu, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) rj-that-scout, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Laura J. Costello, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mason Heberling, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Erin Lalime, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Arisaema triphyllum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The Demography of Jack‐in‐the‐Pulpit, a Forest Perennial that Changes Sex
Paulette Bierzychudek (1982) · Ecological Monographs
Nectar and Pollen Feeding by Insect Herbivores and Implications for Multitrophic Interactions
Felix Wäckers, Jörg Romeis, P. van Rijn (2006) · Annual Review of Entomology
Response of forest plant species to land‐use change: a life‐history trait‐based approach
Kris Verheyen, Olivier Honnay, Glenn Motzkin, Martin Hermy (2003) · Journal of Ecology
The invasive plant Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) inhibits ectomycorrhizal fungi in its introduced range
Benjamin E. Wolfe, Vikki L. Rodgers, Kristina A. Stinson, Anne Pringle (2008) · Journal of Ecology
How perennial are perennial plants?
Johan Ehrlén, Kari Lehtilä (2002) · Oikos
Sex-related differences in stress tolerance in dioecious plants: a critical appraisal in a physiological context
Marta Juvany, Sergi Munné‐Bosch (2015) · Journal of Experimental Botany
The earthworms (lumbricidae and sparganophilidae) of Ontario
John W. Reynolds (1977) · Royal Ontario Museum eBooks
Sex Determination in Monoecious and Dioecious Plants.
Erin E. Irish, Timothy Nelson (1989) · The Plant Cell
Forest herb colonization of postagricultural forests in central New York State, USA
Rhine Singleton, Sana Gardescu, P. L. Marks, Monica A. Geber (2001) · Journal of Ecology
LOOKING BACKWARDS: ASSESSING THE PROJECTIONS OF A TRANSITION MATRIX MODEL
Paulette Bierzychudek (1999) · Ecological Applications

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Arisaema 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 60 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.