Orontium aquaticum L.

Golden Club; Bog Torch; Never Wet

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Golden Club is a native herbaceous perennial in the Arum family (Araceae). It can be found throughout most of Alabama, except those areas such as the Black Belt and Tennessee River Valley with basic soils. Golden Club grows in acidic streams, in swamps, in beaver ponds, and in sloughs. It is a perennial from a thick vertical rhizome. The rhizome has contractile roots—thick roots with a ribbed surface that can expand and contract and thereby pull the rhizome deeper into the soil. Leaves are clustered at the top of the rhizome. The leaves are petiolate, elliptic in outline, glabrous, with entire margins. The leaves float on the surface of the water, and are dark green above and pale green below. They have a waxy surface that repels water. Flowers are produced on long cylindrical or conic spadix (a type of inflorescence with tiny flowers closely arranged on a fleshy stalk) lacking a spathe (a leaf-like bract partially enclosing the spadix). The spadix is bright yellow on a white peduncle. The fruit is an utricle (a bag-like fruit) containing a single seed embedded in mucus. Golden Club is endemic to the eastern North America. All parts of the plant contain calcium oxalate crystals which are extremely irritating to the mouth and throat if consumed. It is a common emergent pool plant and can easily be grown from seed.--A. Diamond

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Native OBL (NWPL) G5 (Global Rank)

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