Species
+

Arum italicum Mill.

Italian Lords And Ladies, Italian Lords-and-Ladies, Italian arum, Italian cuckoo-pint

Climate known 76 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

Arum italicum is a species of flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the family Araceae, also known as Italian arum and Italian lords-and-ladies. It is native to the British Isles and much of the Mediterranean region, the Caucasus, Canary Islands, Madeira and northern Africa. It is also naturalized in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Argentina, North Island New Zealand and scattered locations in North America.

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

About the genus · Arum

Arum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. They are native to Europe, northern Africa, and western and central Asia, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean region. Frequently called arum lilies, they are not closely related to the true lilies Lilium. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Arum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araceae
Described by
Mill.
Native to
Great Britain, Switzerland, Baleares +26
Wild records
421 in range· 123 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
797mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 81 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–37DLI
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 (August to January, March and May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 797 mm a year, wettest October at 81 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -4.1 °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 Arisarum italicum (Mill.) Raf.; Arum italicum var. italicum; Arum maculatum var. italicum (Mill.) O.Targ.Tozz.

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 (August to January, March and May 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 (569 mm of 797 mm) takes 8 months, August to January, March and May. Mean temperature moves 13.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to July, September and November.

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 797 mm a year, wettest October at 81 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

797 mm a year at the habitat, 569 mm of it August to January, March and May. Wettest month October at 81 mm, driest April at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 643 mm to 1117 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: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 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 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 -4.1 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.1 °C, the absolute minimum -8.8 °C, about 42 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.6 °C in February (across the envelope cells 0.1 °C to 7.2 °C), warmest day 22.6 °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 -4.1 °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: 60 to 67% 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 7 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 797 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 345 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost27.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 6–37RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 345 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 °C7 / 6–148 / 7–1411 / 9–1714 / 12–1818 / 15–2220 / 18–2623 / 20–2922 / 20–2920 / 17–2616 / 14–2111 / 9–177 / 6–14
Night °C2 / 0–72 / 0–73 / 3–95 / 4–119 / 8–1412 / 11–1714 / 13–2014 / 13–2012 / 11–189 / 8–155 / 4–113 / 1–8
Rain mm72 / 52–11158 / 42–9062 / 46–8356 / 48–10066 / 46–9358 / 17–8056 / 6–7759 / 8–8167 / 38–10081 / 70–13381 / 66–13381 / 62–143
DLI7 / 5–1512 / 10–2120 / 17–3029 / 26–3735 / 32–4337 / 33–4836 / 32–4831 / 27–4323 / 19–3414 / 12–238 / 6–166 / 4–13
RH %66 / 60–6864 / 59–6662 / 57–6460 / 57–6260 / 57–6260 / 55–6260 / 53–6360 / 54–6362 / 57–6364 / 60–6566 / 60–6867 / 60–69

Each figure is the median across the 345 grid cells holding the 417 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 768:3597 (51.575, -0.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.9 °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 345 distinct grid cells holding the 417 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 768:3597 (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 51.50_0.000, lapse-corrected -22 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 51 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.
NativeGreat Britain, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Cyprus, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey· introduced: Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand North, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Jersey, New York, California, Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker50.864, 4.448 · in the densest population, 249 records (59% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 421 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 123 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 360 km away. 343 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 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 421 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Arum italicumArum italicumArum italicumArum italicumArum italicumArum italicumArum italicumArum italicum

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7); no rights reserved · CC0.

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 Arum italicum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Frequently asked questions about in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence: practical issues
Hazem M. Kalaji, Gert Schansker, Richard J. Ladle, Vasilij Goltsev (2014) · Photosynthesis Research
Frequently asked questions about chlorophyll fluorescence, the sequel
Hazem M. Kalaji, Gert Schansker, Marián Brestič, Filippo Bussotti (2016) · Photosynthesis Research
Monoclonal Antibodies to the Alternative Oxidase of Higher Plant Mitochondria
Thomas E. Elthon, Roxy Nickels, Lee McIntosh (1989) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Non-crop plants used as hosts by Drosophila suzukii in Europe
Marc Kenis, Lorenzo Tonina, René Eschen, Bart van der Sluis (2016) · Journal of Pest Science
Chromoplast Differentiation: Current Status and Perspectives
Isabel Egea, Cristina Barsan, W. Bian, Eduardo Purgatto (2010) · Plant and Cell Physiology
Is biomass a reliable estimate of plant fitness?
Brett S. Younginger, Dagmara Sirová, Mitchell B. Cruzan, Daniel J. Ballhorn (2017) · Applications in Plant Sciences
Photosynthesis in non‐foliar tissues: implications for yield
Andrew J. Simkin, Michele Faralli, Siva Ramamoorthy, Tracy Lawson (2019) · The Plant Journal
Comparative analysis of medicinal plants used in traditional medicine in Italy and Tunisia
Maria Lucia Leporatti, Kamel Ghédira (2009) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
More is less: net gain in species richness, but biotic homogenization over 140 years
Tora Finderup Nielsen, Kaj Sand‐Jensen, María Dornelas, Hans Henrik Bruun (2019) · Ecology Letters
Microsporogenesis in Monocotyledons
Carol A. Furness (1999) · Annals of Botany

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.

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 search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20 (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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.