The first flower of spring may surprise you. It’s skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, and it flowers well before the start of official spring, typically in February.
This perennial native has been growing in low lying wet areas since the Cretaceous period. It’s unusual flowers with a distinctive smell mimicking that of dead and decaying animals attracts beetles who unsuspectingly become their pollinators. The bitter taste also deters hungry herbivores. Two reasons that make this plant so successful and unusual. But that is but the tip of the calyx.
Skunk cabbage expert and Master Naturalist, Siobhan Percey, who took us on a skunk cabbage discovery hike earlier in the year, will take us through a year in the life of skunk cabbage – unveiling all its secrets of success. NOTE: this presentation WILL NOT be recorded.