IF it IS Arum Italicum, it’s poisonous if injested. It is sold as a garden bulb,and it looks somewhat similar to our native Jack-in-the-Pulpit. I’ve tried to grow it before, but it didn’t make it. I think it’s too hot and dry where I tried it. I think it’s pretty in a shade garden. Lisa

Looks like a Caladium leaf to me. See here, and here. I always thought they grew from bulbs, so you might dig one up to check. I never heard of them popping up in the flower bed before, though. Interesting!

Edit - I think Lisa is right. Looks identical. I love volunteers in the garden.

I believe it is Arum italica. it’s a weed in my garden. It comes up thickly around my plants in winter and dies in summer. I like the look of it, but it gets too invasive around other plants, and try’s to come up throughout the beds

Yep, comes up everywhere in my yard too

Impossible to get rid of the stuff but if you dont try if will take over .It is the Bain of my existence

It is Arum italicum pictum (hardy here) and it is good in a shade garden. Lisa is right. They produce a flower similar to a calla lily which turns into a stick with red berries on it sort of the shape of a modest sized corn cob. The berries are showier than the flower. It is evergreen in the Winter and dormant, disappears, in the Summer.

Cath

I agree that it is Arum Italicum. It has a sort of non-descript cala lilly shaped bloom (except much smaller and greenish white), and then makes a vertical stick of red berries, just as Cath said. We never planted it, but evidently my DH's ancestors did - it comes up randomly in various flower beds from time to time. I think the leaves are pretty, and it is a good shade plant. My MIL (who was born in 1920) thought that the berry part was "not for mixed company" as she would say.

Jackie

That is Arum italicum, and it is a noxious weed here in the PNW. If you have only a few plants of it, I would encourage you to remove and destroy them before they turn into an unstoppable scourge.

It is classified as "poisonous" because it contains the same oxalates as "Dumbcane", which, if ingested, irritates mucous membranes and can cause constriction of the throat by swelling. Not as serious a poisoning threat as many plants we grow, but not something to handle carelessly (or swallow great chunks of!)

It was a somewhat threatening, but handsome, weed in my garden until the porcupine came along. Now it is no more. Apparently the bulbs are cake and pie to porcupines. I regret it.

If you don't have pets or toddlers that nibble plants, I don't see why you can't grow it if you like it. It's probably no more toxic than foxglove, delphinium, peony, hydrangea, milkweed, jasmine, begonia, daffodil, etc. The invasive part is another matter and probably varies with the zone. This is the first I've heard of it.

I’m mainly concerned about the invasive side of it. It has started to spread over to my rose beds in full sun. I’ll treat it like mint and slowly remove it and any new bulbs that form.

For me it is so invasive. Yesterday, in just one small area, I counted 23 of them breaking through the soil. I guess I need a porcupine.