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Jack in the Pulpit LbNA #56757

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jul 4, 2010
Location:
City:Cherryfield
County:Washington
State:Maine
Boxes:1
Planted by:Weald Bethel
Found by: Not yet found!
Last found:N/A
Last edited:Jul 4, 2010
Background information about the location: The letterbox is located along the Rivendell Trail at the Maine Sea Coast Mission’s 60-acre Downeast Campus in Cherryfield Maine. The property was originally owned by the Milliken family who made their fortune in the logging industry. A beautiful mansion and formal gardens overlooked the Narraguagus River. The home was destroyed by fire in and the beautiful gardens were overgrown. In 1960, the property was donated to the Maine Sea Coast Mission. Today, the property is home to the EdGE afterschool program, the Mission’s direct service programs that assist people with food, clothing, housing and fuel assistance, the Weald Bethel Chapel and over 2 miles of groomed trails. Throughout the property you’ll see beautiful gardens, wild flowers, birds, and other wildlife.

Clues: Enter the Downeast Campus on Weald Bethel Lane which is located on Route One in Cherryfield. After you turn onto Weald Bethel Lane, you’ll see a building on your right – the EdGE Center. Park in the lot and collect a map at the entrance to the EdGE Center.
Enter the trails from the paved parking lot at the EdGE Center. The trail head is located at the edge of the woods behind the building and to the left (if you are facing the woods).
Walk along Lorian Way (orange trail marker) which will take you past our demonstration forest which is a clearing on your right. Read the sign to learn more about this area. Go over a small brook and through the EdGE ropes course.
At the junction of Old Forest Trail (red trail marker) and Rivendell Trail (green trail marker), stay to the left on Rivendell Trail. Soon you will come into a clearing in the woods and you’ll see a wooden platform on the ground which is part of the ropes course. When you reach the clearing, you are at the junction of two trails again, Fangorn and Rivendell. Go straight and stay on Rivendell (green trail marker).
Count 20 paces from the platform and stop – there is a BIG tree on your left. Count 80 paces from the BIG tree and look to your right. You’ll see a small patch of jack in the pulpit plants. LOOK but DON’T TOUCH – THEY ARE RARE IN OUR FOREST. The letterbox will be 5 paces from the patch on the left of the trail.

About Jack in the Pulpit
Jack in the Pulpit is a native perennial herb found in moist woods from Canada to Florida and westward to Kansas and Minnesota. Cultivation: is very difficult, requires green house conditions. The leaves, one or two, are long stemmed, smooth, light green, trifoliate, and entire, each leaflet is ovate from 3 to 6 inches long and from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches wide. The root is a corm, it is shaped like a turnip. WARNING: Raw corms are not edible and contain calcium oxalate which will cause a burning sensation in the mouth. The flowers blooms in April and May, the single is either all green or green with dark purple stripes, is an unusual formation, a sort of green vase, a spathe, made from a single leaf, with a stalk growing up the middle of it, and a leaf-hood folding gracefully over its top. Jack-in-the-Pulpit stands about 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall. In autumn the rest of the plant dies away, leaving only the berry-covered stalk. The fruit ripens in the form of a bunch of bright, scarlet, shining berries. This plant starts life male. After 2 years, or longer in poor soil, it turns female, flowers and bears seed. If the plant receives a shock, it may turn back male again.