Arum italicum Pictum

"This beautiful and interesting herbaceous foliage plant turns the normal seasons of the year upside down. The exciting leaves start to unfold in autumn, and grow larger all through the winter and spring, reaching as much as a foot in length. They are shaped like an arrowhead, dark green heavily marbled with very pale green, and waved at the edges. The pale green flowers, which are short and inconspicuous, consist of a spike cloaked in a spathe (a large enfolding bract) like those of the wild arum, lords and ladies, of the hedgerows. By mid-summer, flowers and leaves have disappeared underground, but in early autumn, spikes of bright red, poisonous berries shoot up like danger signals before the leaf cycle starts afresh."

(Extract from The Best Plants for Your Garden by Anne Scott-James)

Although not a flower this is our Today's Flowers post, I'm sure you'll agree that the berries are stunning.