http://www.theolympian.com/outdoors/story/389402.htmlPublished March 15, 2008
Skunk cabbage’s shoots herald spring
Sharon Wootton
I’m not a fan of malodorous odors but that didn’t stop me from wanting to bow down before the first skunk cabbages’ scroll-like shoots of late winter. I’ve been longing for spring since December and was ready to celebrate with any sign of its return.
Besides, Georgia O’Keefe also appreciated skunk cabbage, painting a 27-by-38-inch portrait of one in 1927.
The only native species in the arum family, the Western skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) is also called swamp lantern. Its scent might repel humans but attracts insects, such as flies and gnats, for pollination.
The 6- to 8-inch yellow hood (sheath) seems to act as a come-hither flag to insects while it partially protects the meaty-looking stalk (spadix), itself covered with tiny greenish- yellow blossoms without petals in a club-shaped spike protected by the sheath. Large leaves emerge later.
Other plants that peek out this early are in danger of dying back during a surprise cold snap. Skunk cabbage would, too, except for a remarkable ability to create heat that can be dozens of degrees higher than the ambient air temperature and melting the ice or snow around them.
The plant can, theoretically, oxidize starch stored in its rhizomes while using a lot of oxygen and producing warmth. It’s a well-choreographed dance of releasing warmth and odor, blooming flowers and pollinating insects.
The smell is caused by organic compounds, the same ones that are produced by decomposing bacteria, thus duping life into coming by for a taste. Stronger smells can be released by crushing parts of the plant or by decomposition.
The plant’s survival strategy might impress those dreaming of immortality, in part due to a clever design. Skunk cabbages have roots that burrow deep into the muck, roots that can contract as they go downward.
That movement pulls the plant’s crown (rhizome), a thick underground stem, deeper, year after year, and at some point buries the stems, too, leaving the older plants’ leaves appearing to come right out of the ground.
Theoretically, botanists say, skunk cabbage could live for hundreds of years in the swamp, earning the nickname the Methuselahs of the Plant World. While I’ve read that specimens several hundred years old have been found, I have not discovered how that age is determined.
But swamps and bogs can dry out over hundreds of years, and in that situation the plants would die.
Meanwhile, the leaves appear after the flowers, growing up to 4 feet or more long. The large, shiny leaves have been called Indian wax paper because American Indians used them to line food-steaming pits and baskets. Some also used the plant for burns.
Skunk cabbages are aroids, thus harboring calcium oxalate crystals and enzymes that, if the plant is eaten raw, will cause extreme irritation and swelling in the mouth and throat.
Black bears, apparently, aren’t deterred by the effect.
