One of the stranger flowers of the deep woods, green-blossomed Jack-in-the-Pulpit is named for its resemblance to a preacher standing in a pulpit, sermonizing to his woodsy congregation. As Caroline Smith wrote (as revised by John Greenleaf Whittier, 1883):

Jack in the pulpit preaches today,
Under the green trees just over the way.
Squirrel and song-sparrow, high on their perch,
Hear the sweet lily-bells ringing to church.
Come, hear what his reverence rises to say,
In his low painted pulpit this calm Sabbath-day.
Fair is the canopy over him seen,
Penciled by Nature’s hand, black, brown, and green.
Green is his surplice, green are his bands;
In his queer little pulpit the little priest stands.

Love the Jack-in-the-Pulpit and other odd flowers of the north woods? Purchase cards and prints here!