Skunk cabbage - the first wildflower of spring

OK, I know it’s not everyone’s idea of a wildflower but here in north east Pennsylvania skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, is the first native plant to emerge through the soil and flower. The first appeared a couple of days ago, and more are now opening amongst the remains of last years grasses and ferns.

This is a member of the arum family that grows in damp places, often alongside (but not in) streams, mainly in the open though sometimes under trees. The colour of the spathe, the outer hood, varies from plant to plant. That in the first picture, reddish-purple and green streaks, is fairly typical in our area. The second picture, below, shows a clump with striking dark purple spathes growing on a damp part of the rock garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, when I was a student there in 1975. As its name suggest, this is a smelly plant. I’ve just been down on my hands and knees to sniff some.

I can assure you that the smell is not pleasant. The Flora of North America reports that a wide variety of insects have been found in the flowers, and it was always assumed that the smell attracted the insects which pollinated the flowers. However, experiments in a wind tunnel (what some people will do to get a PhD!) have shown that the flowers can be wind pollinated. Either way, little seed is actually produced.

Skunk cabbage is also an important food for black bears when they first emerge from hibernation. Attracted by the smell, they dig up and eat the thick starchy roots – well, ours do anyway.

There is more than just this one species. Symplocarpus nipponicus, from Korea, looks good. Google will translate the Korean webpage for you and you will learn these important points about the plant:
    Stem lifestyle market: Nothing for elder brother
    Storehouse demand: Semitone sincerity

John Grimshaw reports seeing another Asian species, S. renifolius, in Belgian garden and altogether the International Plant Names Index lists these:
    Symplocarpus egorovii
    Symplocarpus foetidus
    Symplocarpus foetidus f. variegatus
    Symplocarpus kamtschaticus
    Symplocarpus nabekuraensis
    Symplocarpus nipponicus
    Symplocarpus nipponicus f. viridispathus    
    Symplocarpus renifolius

Note the f. variegatus… Any news, not to mention plants, of a variegated skunk cabbage will be gratefully received.

It’s wonderful where a few thoughts about a native wildflower can lead. I can feel more research coming on…

Comments

[judywhite]

In addition to happily noshing on the flowers, the black bears also will munch on the Skunk Cabbage leaves when the foliage emerges later in the spring season. The leaves are big and green and ribbed - I like them, actually - and one plant by our path had a large rounded bear-bite chunk out of the edge soon after it opened, and stayed that way all summer, reminding me of the bear each time I walked past. I'm not sure what it meant that the bear took just one big bite and no more - did she hate the taste, was just browsing, or was she scared away before the full meal was consumed? I can testify that the crushed foliage also smells like skunk.

Craig Holdrege has a nice piece (with lovely drawings by the author) about the species in The Nature Institute's website at http://tinyurl.com/35jab4, and he says the Swedish colonists in Pennsylvania called it "bear-weed" since bears would eat the buds and leaves. (Turkeys, apparently, also eat the buds.) Holdrege goes on to point out that the carrion fly-attracting volatile organic compounds released by members of the Arum family (such as Skunk Cabbage, although it's not proven yet whether Skunk Cabbage actually does) include ones with the evocative names of putrescine and cadavarine - also released by decaying bodies.

Yumm!

[Graham Rice]

Thanks judy, more fascinating lore.

David Culp of Brandywine Hellebores once told me that he teased visitors from Japan by pointing to the foliage as they drove past and saying: "That's the American hosta." - and they'd jump out of their seats in astonishment.

[Jonathan Knisely]

Of interest to some might be the fact that this arum is capable of thermoregulation. Ambient temperature variation does not significantly affect the temperature of the spadix--there is adaptive respiratory heat production(and presumably conversion of the nutrient reserves in the root) to decreases in ambient temperature.

Over over a 37.4 degree change in ambient temperature (-10.3 to 27.1 degrees C), the temperature of the spadix changed only 3.5 degrees C (22.7 to 26.2
C).

Perhaps that's another reason insects that are out and about on a chilly spring day tend to go on walk-about on the spadix!

A reference to this research by RS Seymour can be located on line at http://tinyurl.com/3b2lfw

[max]

Wow! (the thermoregulation, I mean). Do other arums do this?

[Also note that Jonathan's link leads directly to a pdf file].

[Graham Rice]

Thanks for bringing up the issue of temperature regulation, Jonathan, I was a hoping someone would.

I've looked for the signs, which have often been mentioned, of snow melting as heat is generated but here there always seems to be a lag of a few days between the last of the snow and the first emergence. Anyone have any pictures showing this? Actually, I've just found a a picture, here: http://tinyurl.com/27djdu (scroll down)

I notice that a paper for the American Midland Naturalist reported research on this (http://tinyurl.com/2z3x6n - subscribers only). The abstract states: "Temperatures of Symplocarpus foetidus spadices measured during March 1971 in a population of approximately 50 plants in northeast Iowa mere as much as 25 C above ambient air temperature. A prolonged period o[ elevated respiration makes possible flower development and pollination at air temperatures below 0 C even though the spathe and spadix are not inherently frost-resistant."

This is certainly an extraordinary plant.

[lisa]

Thanks for the post and fascinating info! I especially like the link to the snow picture, I'll be taking a walk in the woods myself this weekend to see if we have this plant!

[Graham Rice]

And if you find it, Lisa, tell us what colour it is and whether it's melting the snow - if you have snow over there in Wisconsin, as we've had in PA.

[Claire]

Hello,

I saw the most beautiful skunk cabbage in British Columbia, Vicoria, in Canada. What a beautiful flower.