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Reference

Compendium

Ingredients for spellwork: their formal and folk names, categories, deities and forms, with the sources behind them.

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    313 ingredients

    313 ingredients

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    Botanical Name
    Arum maculatum

    Lords and Ladies

    Lords and ladies, also called cuckoo pint, is a woodland plant of the arum family, Araceae, native across most of Europe and into eastern Turkey and the Caucasus. In spring it puts up arrow-shaped leaves, often blotched with purple, then a pale green hood, the spathe, wrapped round a poker-shaped spike, the spadix, which is usually purple but may be yellow. The spadix gives off a faecal smell and warms itself well above the surrounding air, drawing in small owl-midges that are trapped beneath a ring of hairs and dusted with pollen before they escape. In autumn a cluster of bright red berries stands on after the leaves have withered. The starchy roots once stiffened linen and ruffs, and the nuns of Syon Abbey used them for church linen in 1440. Several of its names, cuckoo pint among them, liken the spike to a penis, and Dioscorides counted the plant an aphrodisiac. Girls in Dorset were warned that touching it would make them pregnant, Fenland legend had its flowers glowing at night, and it serves as a fertility symbol in several of the sixteenth-century unicorn tapestries. In magical practice it stands for the union of goddess and god on a Beltane altar, and its seeds are added to fertility spells.

    Caution

    Poisonous: every part is toxic if eaten, the roots especially, and all parts can irritate the skin or cause allergic reactions, so handle it with care. The berries contain needle-shaped oxalate crystals that irritate the skin, mouth, tongue and throat and can bring swelling of the throat, difficulty breathing, burning pain and stomach upset. Their acrid taste usually stops anyone eating much, but the plant is one of the commonest causes of accidental plant poisoning seen in hospital emergency departments, and there is no known antidote. The leaves are toxic and can be mistaken for edible sorrel.

    The Berry and Root forms carry their own cautions; the ingredient's page shows them.

    Forms

    • Berry
    • Root
    • Seed

    Correspondences

    Elements
    Air
    Celestial Bodies
    Mars
    Zodiac Signs
    Aries

    Folk Names

    • Adam and Eve
    • Adder's Meat
    • Adder's Root
    • Arrowroot
    • Arum
    • Arum Lily
    • Bobbins
    • Cows and Bulls
    • Cuckoo Flower
    • Cuckoo Pint
    • Cuckoo-Plant
    • Devils and Angels
    • Dog's Dick
    • Fairy Lamps
    • Friar's Cowl
    • Jack in the Pulpit
    • Lamb-in-a-Pulpit
    • Naked Boys
    • Snakeshead
    • Stallions and Mares
    • Starch-Root
    • Wake Pintel
    • Wake Robin
    • Wild Arum

    Categories

    • Creativity
    • Fertility
    • Harmony
    See in Compendium