Lords and Ladies

Many of the common names have male and female connotations, Lords and Ladies, Kings and Queens, Devils and Angels. This all relates to how the plant forms to seemingly represent the male and female reproductive organs. Cuckoo Pint from Anglo Saxon ‘cucu’ meaning ‘lively’ and pint is short for Pintel, which means ‘a vertical projecting ‘pin’ or ‘penis’’ which is noted by its absence of many Victorian books. Firstly, in spring the tuber throws up leaves, developing into large arrow-shaped ones, sometimes with black spots, hence ‘maculatum‘ in the scientific name, which means spotted and is said by some to represent the blood of Christ on the crucifix dripping on the plants. Come April-May the male and female flowers appear at the base of a long cylindrical structure which is called a spadix (male part). As it grows it is cupped by a green to purple-tinged hood called a spathe (female part). The flowers are followed in autumn by the erect spike of orange-red berries.

Care should be taken when picking the leaves of wild garlic as it often grows by Lords and Ladies and it can be picked accidently if care is not taken. The young leaves can be mistaken for Common Sorrel although sorrel leaves are more pointed at its base and generally found in slightly less shady places. 

All the plant is poisonous, with a high concentration in the berries. It contains calcium oxalate crystals which are needle-shaped, and will irritate the skin, mouth and tongue. If eaten it gives the sensation of burning and feels like eating glass, potentially swelling up the tongue and throat, a couple of seconds later the tongue goes numb, then lips swell, a few minutes whole throat and oesophagus will feel like it is on fire. Accidental deaths are uncommon, as the acrid plant rarely gets past the mouth.

The plant traps Owl Midges (Psychoda phalaenoides) into the flower chamber with the allure of decay given by the flowers and the warmth given off by the spadix during flowering to up to 15oC more than the ambient temperature, before releasing it with pollen from its male flowers to pollinate more of its species female flowers. It used to be cultivated for its tubers on the isle of Portland, Dorset and sold as Portland sago, a popular food among labourers that was thought to impact strength and stamina, popular at the time as it was thought to also be an aphrodisiac. It was made edible by leaving out the noxious calcium oxalate through a process of baking, drying and powdering. Despite persistent determination of trying many documented processes of this plant, the professional forager Miles Irving, author of ‘The Forager Handbook’ has had no success with it and remains the only plant he has poisoned himself with, albeit ‘under deliberate and controlled conditions’. Starch obtained from the tuber was used in Elizabethan times to stiffen ruffs.