May and Jack in the Woods

     During the third week in April this year, I saw conspicuous colonies of May apple leaves in most Lancaster County, Pennsylvania woodlands.  Each leaf was shaped like an umbrella, making me think of mysterious gatherings of elves or gnomes under umbrellas in the woods.  And when I looked closely at groups of May apple plants, I also saw individual Jack-in-the-pulpit plants near some of those May apple clumps.  Both these plants develop in eastern deciduous woodlands in April and bloom early in May.  And both are poisonous to eat.
     Many stands of May apples are near patches of skunk cabbage, spring beauties, trout lilies and other kinds of native woodland wildflowers in wooded bottomlands.  All these plants growing together make woodland floors beautiful and magical.  
     May apples form lovely and intriguing colonies on woodland floors because one root system sends up several shoots to capture sunlight and produce seeds.  Early in April, each shoot is a thin shaft poking through the soil and dead-leaf carpets on forest floors.  The shaft soon splits open above ground and one or two leaves grow out of it and open like umbrellas.  Younger plants have one leaf while older ones have two.  And each leaf stands twelve to eighteen inches high.  A flower bud forms at the crotch of the two leaf stems on older plants and soon opens as a white flower under the leaves.  One green fruit with several seeds develops from the blossom and by fall it is table-tennis-sized and pale yellow.  The seeds disperse as the fruit decays.         
     Jack-in-the-pulpits are also intriguing on woodland floors.  Each unique plant has three leaves on the top of each of two stems that can be up to three feet tall.  One flower stem grows between the leaf stems with one bloom on top under the leaves.  Jack the preacher is the spadix standing dark and erect in his two-inch-tall pulpit with a graceful, pointed canopy up the back and over the pulpit.  Seemingly sculptured, the pulpits are light-green, many of which have dark brown stripes.
     Each spadix is covered with tiny blossoms of both genders.  A cluster of green berries replaces the spadix in summer, but becomes red by autumn, adding more color to woodland floors.
     May apples and Jack-in-the-pulpits are unique and interesting plants on the leaf-strewn floors of eastern deciduous forests and small woodlots alike.  With imagination, the one species shelters little people and the other is a preacher.  And they both make woodland floors greener and more intriguing to experience.