Looking at Graham's pictures I am again impressed by the dark beauty of the Kew Symplocarpus - I had not realised that this was unusual coloration for the species, but now I think back to when I saw it the wild in Massachusetts it was typically green with heavy speckling, not that rich purple-brown colour. Is the dark form uncommon in the wild? The authors of The Genera of Araceae are clear that there are only 3 species in the genus, so the IPNI names should probably be regarded as synonyms. John Grimshaw Dr John M. Grimshaw Sycamore Cottage Colesbourne Nr Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 9NP Tel. 01242 870567 COLESBOURNE PARK OPEN DAYS 2007 Easter Monday 9 April, Arboretum Weekend 15-16 September Gates open 1pm, last entry 4 pm website: http://www.colesbournegardens.org.uk/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Graham Rice" <garden@tiscali.co.uk> > About a month ago there was an exchange here about skunk cabbage, > Symplocarpus foetidus, and John Grimshaw mentioned the excellent dark > purple form grown at Kew. > > Well, I've finally found my slide of it taken in 1975, scanned it and > I've posted it on my blog in a general piece about this plant. > http://transatlanticplantsman.typepad.com/transatl… > > And it seems that there may actually be six species, though some > names may by synonyms. Still working on it... >