Mystery plant

hmmm...it's tough without some background info. Where did you get it? Has it flowered yet? The leaves remind me of some hellebores but it's tough to tell. More info would be great.

I got it from a friend who is no longer with us!!
It starts sprouting from a corm in early to mid summer and dies back in late autumn. It hasn't flowered in two years. It propogates itself by making baby corms from the original corm which can be removed and potted up seperately. I now have about a dozen of them. The stem is pale green with dark green irregular spots.
It isn't a hellebore. There is only ever one leaf at the top and is not so hard like the hellebores, quite soft really.
Hope this helps. I don't think I can tell you any more about it.

Sorry for your loss. A couple more questions: do you have it outside and if so what zone are you in? It also reminds me of a native woodland wildflower but the zone will help me whittle it down a bit.

I have a few in the greenhouse, a couple outside and a couple indoors. I don't know what you mean by zone. I live in Suffolk, England. The corms wintered in an unheated greenhouse without a problem. The mature corms are not very big, about 2 cms across and button like although not flat.

The zone is the designation given to all regions of the world for how cold it gets in the winter time. I'm in Zone 5 which means it rarely gets below -20 degrees Farenheit. If a plant will survive in zone 5 then it can withstand -20.

Suffolk is probably Zone 8 which means your coldest temps in the winter are around 10 degrees so anything that you have outside that comes back year after year can survive only to 10 degrees Farenheit.

If it gets to 20 below where I'm at, obviously your plant would not survive here which was what I was looking for because it looked like something that grew around here. I'm not going to be able to help you with identifying it, sorry. Our regions are just too different.

Thank you Hotgirl. I understand about the zone now. Thank you for trying to help. I am sure I will find out what my plant is eventually. I didn't realise I would have a such a problem with it though.

I think I have the ID of my plant. I think it is Dracunculus Vulgaris. My plant is very young so might take another couple of years to flower. The familiar name is Voodoo Lily or Dragon Lily and has a spectacular flower that attracts carion flies with a nasty smell.

I have now be told that my plant isn't a Dracunculus but is actually a Sauromatum Venosum. It has taken me about a week of trawling the internet and books but at last the mystery is solved.