The Biarums of Spring

Springtime! The curious odor of some small rotting thing wafts up from a potted plant, and I know I missed a Biarum flower bud until it opened!

The above species is Biarum rhopalospadix K.Koch from Southern Greece. Our plants were purchased some time ago from Rare Plants in the UK (which has been an excellent source of high quality Biarum species for us).

This genus of dwarf cormous Aroids (relatives of the Calla Lily) can be found all around the Mediterranean Sea and thence along the region of Winter-wet Summer-dry weather stretching out through Iran and even further East. Most of the species that are commonly grown flower in the late Fall before the leaves emerge - called "hysteranthous" flowering. However, there are quite a few that flower in the Spring, as the leaves are drying down in preparation for their Summer dormant period (keep them in the shade and dry all Summer or they are at risk of rotting).

Another species that is now starting to flower is Biarum tenuifolium ssp. zelebouri (also known as Biarum zelebouri). The buds are amazing to watch as they push out of the ground over a week or two (depending on the weather).

Actually, for our growing conditions in coastal California, the entire Biarum tenuifolium group tend to be Spring flowering. The Biarum tenuifolium ssp. galianii below is almost ready to open. In the wild, they come from Southern Spain.

This is not just the time for the wonderous small flowers of the genus - if you hand pollinated any of your flowers (or if you get really lucky with help from the local insects) you may get seeds pushing up through the ground just now. I have been unable to find many (virtually any) images of fresh Biarum seed heads as they emerge from the ground - and admittedly after five years of growing Biarums, this is the first seed head we have had actually reach maturity and get pushed up to ground level!

Above is a photo of an emerging ripe seed head of Biarum dispar at our farm. A first for us!

We grow our Biarums in deep tree seedling pots so they have lots of room for root growth. We buy out pots from Stuewe and Sons in Oregon https://stuewe.com/, generally using the TP38 pots (3" square pots that are 8" deep!). These do not stand on their own, so we use their heavy trays MT38TI to keep the pots upright. Each tray holds 20 and we find them invaluable for organization and keeping all the plants healthy. We plant in a mixture of 2 parts Pearlite to 1 part general cactus potting soil, with added bone meal:

Keep the plants in light shade (30 shade cloth or under an open-branched tree for us). We are finishing letting the pots dry out for their Summer rest now at the end of April. We will resume watering around Hallowen usually. The Pacific Bulb Society has a wiki on Biarum if you'd like to look at some other species.

If you want to try growing these yourself, here are the three sources we have found ethical and reliable sources of quality plants (these are NOT affiliate links, we just buy our plants generally from these folks):

Illahe Rare Plants (USA): https://www.illaherareplants.com/

Rare Plants (UK): https://www.rareplants.co.uk/product-category/shop/biarum/

Seeds of Peace (IL): https://seedsofpeace.info/

Biarum can grow from seed to flowering in three years or so if you want to give starting from seeds a try. Seeds of Peace (above) is the only of the three sources that carries seeds. Happy Growing!