Land Plants - invasive

Italian Arum (Arum italicum) on Feb 3, 2018

Submitter has sample
EDRR Status: Population assessed

Description of specimen

I found 4 clumps of what I believe to be Arum italicum (Italian arum) in our yard.

Commentary

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you so much for reporting this occurrence. Yes, it looks like Italian arum.

Since it looks like a small patch you could try and remove it manually.

You'll want to use gloves as it has some crystalline toxins in the plant that help keep it from being eaten by predators, such as slugs. This toxin can create problems for anyone trying to remove it by hand since it can cause skin irritation.

When removing the plant you'll want to carefully try and remove all of the tubers underground. There are lots of them so you likely won't be able to get all of them the first try and it will require repeated checking and removing of new plants that pop up. You'll also not want to move any of the soil where the Italian arum is to another location as there may be tiny tubers in the soil that you weren't able to remove.

All plant parts and nearby soil should be placed in a bag and disposed of in the trash and not your yard waste bin or home compost.

This is a nice brochure about the plant too: http://extension.wsu.edu/sanjuan/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2014/04/Italian-Arum-brochure.pdf

Thank you for taking the time to report this weed and work on removing it!
Melissa

Melissa Newman
Feb. 5, 2018, 9:28 a.m.