Here’s “Jack” conducting Sunday services in his Church of the Holy Bog. Yes, this is the Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant that usually is difficult to find due to its wet and shady habitat and competing “churchgoers.” The plant (Arisaema triphyllum) is native here and toxic in the raw state to humans.
The literature is unanimous that this plant was given the common name Jack-In-the-Pulpit because – to whomever named it – it looked like a preacher in a covered and striped pulpit who is further covered by a three-leaflet flower structure. It takes a lot of imagination to see that, but there remains a mystery: Why is the preacher named Jack? Why not just call the plant “Preacher [or Priest] in the Pulpit?”
The best answer that I’ve seen is that there was an old English custom of calling unknown males “Jack.” There also was the age-old toy named Jack-in-the-Box that might have reflected that colloquialism. Nonetheless, the Jack-in-the-Pulpit descriptor is more interesting than a technical one, which would be “Spadix-in-the-Spathe.” Botanically, the spadix is the flowering stemlike growth and the spathe is its hooded protective leaf. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 15, 2025.)