I suspect that most people have heard of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant, but may not know that it is native to North Dakota. And it might surprise you, but it is not always "Jack" that is in the pulpit. It could be "Jill."
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) is a member of the Arum family (Araceae), which includes the calla lily, peace lily, titan arum, and philodendron. Its native range is roughly east of a line from Manitoba south to Texas. It is a woodland wildflower that has been documented in Bottineau, Pembina, Grand Forks, Trail, Cass, Richland, Ransom, and Sargent counties.
Jack-in-the-Pulpit grows to a foot or so tall with one or two leaves, each with three 2-4-inch-long leaflets, thus the “triphyllum” in the scientific name. The flowers consist of a rather large light green bract that forms a tubular sheath 3-4 inches tall and around an inch or two in diameter, complete with a little canopy (the “pulpit”). Standing tall in the pulpit are lots of small flowers located near the base of a fleshy stem or spadix (that’s “Jack”). The flower is pollinated by small insects such as thrips and gnats.
Now things are going to get interesting.
Pollen grains, each of which contain two sperm cells are energetically cheap to produce. Female flowers on the other hand subsequently produce seeds and fruits, which are energetically expensive. Jack-in-the-Pulpit can somehow assess its energy reserves and reproduce accordingly.
If the plant has had a good year and energy reserves are high, it will produce female flowers. If energy reserves are low, however, and the plant cannot afford to produce female flowers it will produce male flowers. And if energy reserves are really low, it will not flower at all.
It is interesting to note that the spathe, or “pulpit” tapers downward, so it gets rather crowded toward the base. Male flowers, however, have a small hole in the base where the insects, now likely sprinkled with pollen, can escape and perhaps go on to pollinate another flower. There is no such hole in the female flower, so those insects likely end up crawling around, pollinating the flowers and perhaps even die in the flower.
