Way of the triffids: The arisaema may look sinister, but it has benign intentions

I rather like plants that look as though they might snatch you from your bed and eat you up. Which is why it was impossible to leave Craigieburn, near Moffat in the Borders, without one of Dawa Sherpa's special arisaemas. How he manages to keep this animal in a pot, I can't imagine. Its vast blackish leaves loom, tripartite, over fat, even blacker stems at least a metre tall. Close to the ground crouches a terrifying black pouch-like spathe, protecting the spadix almost hidden inside. If you put a finger inside this spathe, you'd come away without it. Well, that's how it seemed to me anyway.






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