SKUNK CABBAGE SECRETS

SKUNK CABBAGE

SKUNK CABBAGE SECRETS

The SKUNK CABBAGE SECRETS by Mary McF Leister of the Baltimore Sun,

Sunday, February 2, 1975.

Out in the marsh and swamp the pointed tips, teepees, of skunk cabbage is pushing through the frozen earth, ice and snow, into February, gray and cold, There they stand, or sit, like teepees, gray green, yellow green, purple and red, onto the unready earth, with it's own self generated life of radiance. It's teepee is 20 to 30 degree above the winter air around it. Then there is the pungent heart, it's secret.

All life, plants, animal, generate heat. It is unknown generally why the cabbage

liberates greater amount of heat than other plants, is it thermogenesis ? This is the reason

for it's early arrival, from purple cowl to wide spread tropical summer leaves. As a matter

of fact, there are relatives in Malaya jungles which were carried by glaciers through Asia

to the seaboards. If skunk cabbage made that trip through Asia it surely needed help by

man on his migrations. Even with its unpalatable taste and odor perhaps it was the only food

available. In later civilizations it became a medicinal herb and was used by them as a

stimulant and narcotic.

If in late winter or early spring you peer into the narrow slit doorway, of a 4 inch

leathery teepee you can see the lone thick stem 'spandix', with the knobby head of the

blossom. Sometimes the knobby head is covered with off color lavender blooms hidden

by straw color stamens and pistils. You also find the carrion fly awaiting his dinner.

The skunk cabbage spadix hold 15 flowers which produce one large dark seed which

lay on the ground long after the plant has disappeared. These are hard to find during the hot

months for overgrowth of other vegetation. Then there is the second secret , it has been discovered that it's spring growth begins long before mid winter by just laying in the swamp.

Abstracts: Baltimore Sun, Sunday February 2 1975 by Mary McF. Leister.