Description
(syn. stevensii)
This has small, deep-green, glossy leaves (which are sometimes very lightly flecked with white) surrounding, in our form, a 10 cm long miniature spathe. The spathe is pale- to mid-green outside, but light reddish-purple inside. It is sometimes marked with darker purple blotches and sometimes with reddish patches which can become confluent, thus giving it a totally pink or purple interior. Uniquely for Arum, the base of the spathe and indeed the entire inflorescence sits more or less at ground level and it is also remarkably dwarf, this is a miniature Arum. So small that you can easily fit 3 or 4 in a 15cm pot (see our gallery pictures)
Also rarely for the genus Arum, the whole inflorescence is sweetly scented (this is what gratum means) during flowering. This is not a strong sweet scent and in truth it isn’t always evident, but it is not the nose-melting, hot-dung or carrion smell of some species!
An excellent species introduced to general horticulture in the 1980s from North Western Turkey. Here we have grown it outside for many years with no protection whatsoever. We waited for it to flower for a long time, before realising that as a miniature, with virtually no peduncle, the inflorescence didn’t actually come above the foliage and in fact it had been flowering for some years, which is why sometimes we saw seed without it seeming to have flowered. I can say that it is most reliably hardy here outside under garden conditions in a sunny, well-drained soil though it is best appreciated in a pot. Garden flowering can be expected in the last days of April and early May.
