Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Jack-in-the-pulpits are one of the spring wildflowers I look for wherever I go in late April and May in Maryland and Virginia. I never saw them as I was growing up in Texas so I was delighted to see them growing in forest mulch when we moved to the east coast. They were a plant I’d only seen in pictures previously and always thought they were odd looking; I thought the same about Indian pipes and horsetails.

The Jack-in-the-pulpits seem to have become more numerous over the course of 30 years that I have found them. Maybe I just am more likely to go to the forests at the right time or I am looking for them with more experience. They often blend in with the other low green vegetation (like May apples and poison ivy!). There are often clumps of them ---- perhaps the patch happens to be the perfect place in the forest for Jack-in-the-pulpits. Other times they are all alone. The stripes come upward from the base and extend over the hood.

But you have to catch them quickly. Their window of glory for the year is only a few weeks each spring!