Angelo Porcelli wrote, >Arum italicum is native (invasive) to all Italy from North to South. The one collected in Sicily is >Arum italicum, no doubt. The other species present in Italy are : Arum apulum, endemic of >Central Apulia, Arum A.cylindraceum (the Italian population formerly described as A. lucanum ) >scattered in the Southern Italy at altitude, Arum pictum endemic of Sardinia and Arum >maculatum, in the Northern and Central Italy I thought A. maculatum was a synonym of A. italicum subsp. maculatum? Is that wrong? It's interesting that Arum pictum is endemic to Sardinia. I bought the plant some years ago from an English nursery and read that it was tender, so I kept it in the bulb frame. Last fall I planted out some extra offsets, admittedly in one of the warmer parts of the garden, and they made it through a harder than average winter with no damage to the winter-growing foliage (low of 17 F, repeated snowfalls and thaws). I planted out a number of different Arum species on a steepish slope last fall and hope most of them will prove hardy and eventually clothe the slope in winter and spring with their foliage. Several have flowered in the bulb frame, including A. dioscoridis, which is beautiful but smells just like cow manure (not that bad, as aroids go). Several years ago I organized a special issue of the Rock Garden Quarterly devoted to aroids (a few copies are available for purchase through the Book Service), and Peter Boyce was kind enough to contribute an article on the genus Biarum. I've managed to grow a number of these mostly smaller aroids (some can get quite big, as I found out when I finally saw them in nature), which are fairly easy from seed. Some of them don't produce many offsets, though, so I don't often have enough to distribute. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA