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Community Corner

If it Smells Like a Skunk, Does it Make it a Skunk?

Of course it does, but what's a Skunk plant?

Whether it is the return of a few Red-winged Blackbirds or the neighbor washing his car in the driveway, the evidence that spring is on its way continues to build. I observed migrating Sandhill Cranes and a Turkey Vulture on Saturday. Seeing both were indications that, for the animal world at least, things seem to be waking up, but what about evidence in the plant world? Surely the first actual blooms of spring are still weeks away, right?

That question needed an answer, so it was time for me to hit the woods. My goal was to search some of the forested wetland areas, where pools of water gather in the summer, or springs seep from the ground year round. That was the habitat where I hoped to find those first green sprouts of spring from a plant known as the Skunk Cabbage. If you’re ever curious to know why this plant is called Skunk Cabbage, find one, pinch off a piece of leaf, crumble it between your fingers and give it a whiff...  or you could just take my word for it.

The Skunk Cabbage is one of our longest living plants. It is quite possible that plants growing when our area was first settled around 1830 might still be thriving today. Even beneath the heavy snow, Skunk Cabbage will emerge from the ground resembling something like a goosenecked gourd of purple or green, called a spathe. As the plants grow, the spathe opens and exposes a round ball called a spadix, where the tiny yellow flowers will grow.

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How is it that Skunk Cabbage can emerge from the ground and begin to bloom weeks before any other plant? The secret lies in the word, thermogenesis.  Basically the Skunk Cabbage is warm-blooded and able to generate its own heat. The amount of heat it can generate is surprising.  Even with air temperatures well below freezing the plants can maintain temperatures in the 90s! This allows the plant to jump-start in the spring and by blooming so early, Skunk Cabbage beat out all the competition for insect pollinators. At higher temperatures, the foul smell of skunk cabbage is enhanced and dispersed more effectively, drawing insects in from even greater distances.

By summer, Skunk Cabbage will have grown considerably, with extremely large leaves resembling the outer leaves of the cabbage plant. The deep shade generated by a patch of Skunk Cabbage prevents other plants from growing beneath them, and in a very real way, helps preserve the moisture in the soil the plant requires to survive.

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Oh, back to my Skunk Cabbage hunt. As I approached the area, the snow was still deep and I really wasn’t expecting to get lucky. But nature knew better, and in holes that their own heat had melted in the snow, the Skunk Cabbage had emerged. Yes indeed, the amazing plant world is waking up too.

 

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