A photographic book on this unique British plant, by Lynden Swift.
Coming Soon.
“This crafty and malignant antediluvian vegetable”, was how Lords and Ladies was described in 1899 when it was believed that it’s red berries had evolved to poison birds that ate of them to become “huge manure heaps for the growth of the young plant”. A crafty and malignant plant indeed.
Containing over 50 stunning photographs showcasing this unique British plant , the Secret Life of Lords and Ladies explores the history, the mythology and the fascination which this plant has held for us since ancient times.
Known as Cuckoo Flower, Angels and Devils and Stallions and Mares, amongst a host of other local names, Arum Maculatum has always stirred our imaginations. The unmistakable sexual suggestiveness carried in the curves of its flowering parts has led to it being universally held to be a powerful aphrodisiac. Reflecting this bawdy sexuality the plant has inspired over 100 common names in English alone; more than any other British plant.
Over the centuries it has been used as a food, a medicine, an essential ingredient to Elizabethan high fashion, a tool to get rid of unwelcome guests and a symbol of sexual intercourse in artistic representations. The Egyptians carved it on the walls of their temples. It was mentioned by Theophrastus, student of Aristotle, 200 years before the Birth of Christ. It featured in the first ever encyclopaedia as written by Pliny the Elder in AD77. It resuscitates bears from hibernation, can raise its temperature to an astonishing 14 Celsius above the surrounding environment, has pollen which glows at night giving it the name of fairy lamp and pollinates itself by trapping flies by releasing the odour of rotting meat before releasing them alive to complete its pollination.
It is a plant which has fired our imaginations down the centuries and which is still a potent symbol of the wild and mysterious side of nature.