A question for both plant and magic people

[NightMist]

I am trying to find out what the plant Papa Jim calls "cruel man of
the woods" is.

Google gave me one return on it, and darn it that is not good enough!
I mean I have seen scholarly essays with bloopers like High John the
Conqueror root being from mirabilis jalapa rather than ipomoea jalapa
(syn. ipomoea purga), so I can't trust just one reference.

I am not planning any enemy work, and I have plenty of other things if
I were, but it tasks me not to know.

NightMist
--

Nothing has been the same since that house fell on my sister.

[Fnord Prefect Fnord]

On Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:44:56 +0000, NightMist wrote:

> I am trying to find out what the plant Papa Jim calls "cruel man of the
> woods" is.
>
> Google gave me one return on it, and darn it that is not good enough!

I googled the phrase andc got 8 returns. One defined it as poltandra
alba. Two are herb shops that don't define it but do sell it. One was a
page where someone was posing it as a question in 2003, and apparently
had no answer yet.

I got nothing on poltranda alba, except that there is a plant genus
poltranda/peltranda, and poldtranda virginica seesm to be the most common.

[Fnord Prefect Fnord]

On Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:44:56 +0000, NightMist wrote:

> I am trying to find out what the plant Papa Jim calls "cruel man of the
> woods" is.
>
>

would that be papajimsbotanica.com? I foudn it for sale there too.

From further searching, it seems to be a type of arum, whatever that is.

[NightMist]

On Sun, 3 Feb 2008 16:30:58 +0000 (UTC), Fnord Prefect Fnord
<fnord...@yahoo.com> wrote:

>On Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:44:56 +0000, NightMist wrote:
>
>> I am trying to find out what the plant Papa Jim calls "cruel man of the
>> woods" is.
>
>would that be papajimsbotanica.com? I foudn it for sale there too.

Yah.
He and DH hang in some of the same groups.
Papa Jim is good people.
Since he was all the first hits for his name on a search I didn't get
more specific.

>
>From further searching, it seems to be a type of arum, whatever that is.

I usually think of the ornamental arums first. I used to see the one
with the glossy red cup and the yellow spathe a lot as a kid.
But calla lilies, elephant's ears, jack-in-the-pulpit, voodoo lilies,
and candle flowers are all arums too.

Voodoo lily, also called dragon arum here:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2034/
or
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2034/

Candle flower here:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1759/
or
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55580/

So far I have just the one reference to link the names, a lady in the
quilt group came up with it as well, but it turns out her info was
from the same book the site referenced.

[shash...@gmail.com]

I believe it is a large black and white or gray and white mushroom. I am still searching for the answer to this as well. I have some friends from Mexico whom I will ask to see if they have a way of finding out.

[practica...@gmail.com]

"Cruel man of the woods" is actually "Old man of the woods".

It is a spotted mushroom...latin name "Strobilomyces floccopus.

[Yosemite Sam]

You experienced a cyclical Google of unique period. Your seek was recorded and, like Concentration, you matched it again this is pair.

[Phoebe Moore]

I am trying to find more info on it as well. I am reading a book called "A Secret History of Memphis Hoodoo" and it lists it as "poltandra alba" which yields nothing upon searching - except for a book that must have been used as a reference for it called "Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro" - https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=-qe0AAAAIAAJ&pg=GBS.PA2&hl=en (go to page 245).

it looks like maybe it was supposed to be "peltandra alba" which is the alum that someone mentioned previously. looks like it might also be called peltranda sagittifolia

https://www.gapphotos.com/imagedetails.asp?view=peltandra-alba-white-arrow-arum-&imageno=1320490