Helen Osterow, age 12, of Nogales, Ariz., for her question:

WHAT IS A JACK IN THE PULPIT?

A wild flower that you'll find growing in moist woodlands and thickets from Nova Scotia south to the Gulf States, and west as far as Minnesota, is called the jack in the pulpit. A relative of the marsh calla, it is also sometimes called Indian turnip.

Jack in the pulpit is really well named because part of it looks like a preacher standing in his pulpit. The "preacher" is a slender stalk called the spadix.

The tiny greenish yellow flowers grow in a club shaped spike on the upper part of the spadix. The "pulpit" is a leaflike growth which encloses the spadix like a trumpet. This part, called the spathe, has a broad flap that extends up and over the spadix.

This oddly shaped flower blooms from April to June and then produces smooth, red berries.