Definition of Jack-in-the-pulpit in English:
Jack-in-the-pulpit
noun
Either of two small plants of the arum family.
a North American arum with a green or purple-brown spathe (Arisaema triphyllum, family Araceae).
another term for cuckoo pint
- Jack-in-the-pulpits are perennials that pass the winter underground as corms. In the spring, they send up a shoot, which unfolds one or two leaves and a "flower"
- Jack-in-the Pulpits are native to wet woodlands and heavily foliaged areas from Nova Scotia to Minnesota and southward to Florida and Texas, so Kansas and Nebraska do not have exclusive rights to this exotic looking group.
- The wildflowers, many of which bloom in May, include waterleaf, wild ginger, red trillium, Jack-in-the-pulpit, smooth and woolly blue violet, Solomon's seal, false Solomon's seal, and enchanter's nightshade.
Origin
Mid 19th century: so named because the erect spadix overarched by the spathe resembles a person in a pulpit.