With an off-putting scent and maroon flower buds that mix in with fall’s leaf litter, skunk cabbage shouldn’t be on the radar of many Minnesota hikers.
The plant blooms early and appears weird sufficient to slot in with Addams Household residence décor.
However the coolest half? Skunk cabbages really pump out heat.
You learn that proper: They’re one in every of only a few vegetation able to thermogenesis, which is the facility to generate warmth.
Skunk cabbage at Interstate State Park. (Jenni Webster)
Contained in the flower’s spathe — a conical sheath defending an egg-shaped spadix coated with tiny blooms — the temperature can rise a minimum of 30 levels hotter than the outside. That helps skunk cabbage push by any lingering snow on the bottom.
It additionally makes skunk cabbage one of many first vegetation to bloom, generally showing as early as February throughout heat winters and as late as April throughout chilly ones.
This 12 months, the plant’s blooms started displaying up the primary week of March in Minnesota. They are often present in moist areas, corresponding to Eloise Butler Wildflower Backyard’s marsh and Minnehaha Falls Regional Park in Minneapolis, in state parks alongside the St. Croix River, and different areas close to swamps, springs and bogs.
In addition to the promise of heat contained in the spathe, skunk cabbage vegetation even have a chemical known as cadaverine that’s the identical substance present in decaying animal matter. Its Latin title, foetidus, means putrid or stink. That scent attracts flies and gnats identified to feed on carrion, in addition to different bugs, which pollinate the skunk cabbage.
