The last three days have possibly been a time for children to be kept indoors in the Oxford green belt village of Garsington after the Dragons of Kings Copse Park took to the air. Or to put things another way, no less than five Dragon Arum stems bloomed all at once here at KCP BG. These are impressive plants by any measure and our best developed clump this year has performed wonderfully well (pictured below).

It was seeing one of these growing wild in Greece in May 2017 that first prompted me to start collecting exotic Aroids and I acquired three tubers the following autumn. Those are widely available from bulb merchants and have been an early summer staple here in each May or June since. The plant originates from the eastern Mediterranean region but has been widely introduced elsewhere and is easily cultivated in the British Isles being fully hardy. The vivid, blotched inflorescences grow up to 60 cm or more in length and smell of rotting carrion to attract insect pollinators at first but not for long. Indeed the whole show is over in around three days. I just love ’em but not all nearby residents are quite so appreciative.

In the wild this plant grows in rocky gorges, along waterways, around waste ground or on the margins of olive groves. Robust shoots appear in early spring, slowly producing thick stems speckled with infinitely-varied patterns, from which pale green and usually marbled foliage emerges. All this grows to up to1.5 metres tall and the top-heavy structure is vulnerable to being blown down in the typically windy conditions of the season. Gradually the elongated blooms emerge, growing day upon day through which the crinkly leading edges slowly colour.

Finally, as I noticed before heading out on the morning of 14th these outsized exotic buds unfurl to reveal long, glistening purplish-black spadices that protrude from the deep magenta spathes like a Dragon’s tongue, hence the popular name. Typical blooms are around 40 – 50cm in length, though larger ones can reach up to 125cm and the spadix 135cm. I have seen this floral display described variously as “dramatic and curiously-unsettling”, “or beautiful and enchanting but with a dark, macabre side”. Certainly Dragon Arums lack none of the off-beat weirdness in Aroids that so captivates collectors such as myself.

Seven days previously on 9th June the only bloom (pictured above and below, left) this year from one of our other tubers was even more spectacular than any in the above featured clump that can be seen behind it. The fifth stem to bloom on 14th was a smaller pot grown plant, and the final image (below right) is of that “junior” member of our collection. A sixth stem in the large clump bloomed on 16th, by which time things were becoming a bit crowded.

Very soon these Arums will all have gone over and will then quickly shrivel and dry for another season, leaving no trace above ground. Next mid-winter mysterious stirrings will begin again further down as the sleeping Dragons of Kings Copse Park awaken once more and renewed life begins to thrust skyward. And such is the stuff of legend.