Lucky you! Skunk cabbage is an amazing native plant! Every year, it’s one of the earliest bloomers. The plant has a very long, thicc, fleshy taproot that powers the flower stalk up out of the February ground. The actual flower stalk, the spadix (yes really) is partially enclosed by a folded hood-like leaf called the spathe. Inside the spathe the temperature can be as much as 25 degrees warmer than the surrounding air!
The flowers smell kind of like rotting meat to attract their pollinators – early emerging carrion-eating flies. The crushed leaves smell kind of skunky too. Skunk cabbage is a spring ephemeral; by the summer solstice, the leaves begin to decline and die back, and the taproot digs itself into the mucky soil a little deeper to wait for the next early spring.
MoatOatGroutPeace
As others have said – Skunk Cabbage, also known as Swamp Lantern (if you are looking for a more whimsical name).
AdDramatic5591
I have moved far north where the skunk cabbage do not grow, and I miss them especially in the spring. Its like having an odd but wonderful aunt who visits every spring who you love despite her breath.
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Eastern Skunk Cabbage
Skunk Cabbage – the smelly flowers appear before the foliage. [Symplocarpus foetidus – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symplocarpus_foetidus)
Skunk cabbage – first sign of spring!!!
Lucky you! Skunk cabbage is an amazing native plant! Every year, it’s one of the earliest bloomers. The plant has a very long, thicc, fleshy taproot that powers the flower stalk up out of the February ground. The actual flower stalk, the spadix (yes really) is partially enclosed by a folded hood-like leaf called the spathe. Inside the spathe the temperature can be as much as 25 degrees warmer than the surrounding air!
The flowers smell kind of like rotting meat to attract their pollinators – early emerging carrion-eating flies. The crushed leaves smell kind of skunky too. Skunk cabbage is a spring ephemeral; by the summer solstice, the leaves begin to decline and die back, and the taproot digs itself into the mucky soil a little deeper to wait for the next early spring.
As others have said – Skunk Cabbage, also known as Swamp Lantern (if you are looking for a more whimsical name).
I have moved far north where the skunk cabbage do not grow, and I miss them especially in the spring. Its like having an odd but wonderful aunt who visits every spring who you love despite her breath.