Skunk Cabbage & Wetlands & Global Warming

Just when you think you've exhausted your search of a particular subject, you come across a term like this, "environmental treasure." This is the description a writer from the Kalamazoo Gazzette gave to skunk cabbage. Now, if you have smelled skunk cabbage, you might have trouble agreeing with this description. But think about it. First, it harbors all the uniques characteristics I have talked about in former blogs. But also, it signals a vital part of earth's well-being,the wetland. Any experienced hiker knows that getting you feet wet when you see skunk cabbage can quickly lead to a pant leg covered in mud. That is because the skunk cabbage constantly draws water from its roots to survive. The connection between global warming and healthy skumk cabbage is an obvious one that we might overlook just because it is right "under our noses" so to speak. Possibly it is this relationship to a healthy earth that gives the skunk cabbage the right to accept the honor as  an "environmental treasure."

Dandelion & Global Warming

With this post I would like to add another line of thinking to the curiosities of nature. How does Global Warming affect  a plant or animal or insect species.  Talking about the role global warming with something as ubiquitous as the dandelion underscores  the pervasiveness of this phenomenon  in our lives.

So, how does more CO2 affect the dandelion? For those who classify the dandelion as a weed, I guess this will only increase their efforts to eliminate this flower.  It grows taller. In fact this has been happening since the 1950's.

Dandelion Fritters

Here's what you need to make... Isn't that how most 'how to' articles start? One word of caution. This is a perfectly free project but what you need is invaluable.
Your Task: To make dandelion fritters.
1. A bright sunny day (optional)
1. A friend-hopefully a young one, to help gather the dandelion tops.
2. 4 cups of dandelion flowers plucked from the stems
3. one egg
4. one cup of milk
5. one cup of flour
Stir the egg into the milk, and the combine the milk and flour.
Hold the dandelion top by the base, dip and swirl in the batter.
Carefully drop each dandelion  (flower side down) into some gently warmed oil.
When the first flowers are brown, remove them and let them drain on some paper towels.
Confectionionary sugar, or maple syrup drippings turn these fritter into a sweet treat.

Dandelion Picture Books

When you start to look for books to share with children and, at the same time, discover the magic of dandelions, you will discover that the book-nature-child triangle  for dandelions  is an easy way to bring fun, nature facts, and children together.
On a trip to the library you will find many books. Or if you are building your own library, Amazon offers an array of choices.
Some non-fiction for ages 4 to 8 might include:
From Seed To Dandelion by Ellen Weiss. A 2007 publication by Scholastic.
A Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony. The illustrations by Cris Arbo show how sad the dandelion is when autumn arrives. It is easy to talk about the cycle of life with this terrific picture book.
Dandelions Stars In The Grass by Mia Posada. The two Amazon readers who reviewed this book said it well. Seeing the beauty in a cast-away  tells  children- dandelions or rose- each has a place in our world.
And, of course, in addition to this nonfiction reading,  there is Don Freeman's wonderful, vintage picture book Dandelion which may spark a discussion of the flower's name. If you draw around the outline of a leaf you and your friend might see a resemblance to the teeth lining a lion's jaw. Actually, in French dent-de-lion means lion teeth.
Eve Bunting's 2002 picture  book, Dandelions. shows how the beauty of a humble flower can transform the lives of an entire family. With dandelions blooming on their sod roof, their new home in the prairie seems a little easier to get used to.

Dandelion Poetry

There are many simple rhymes about the dandelion for children to enjoy. Eveleen Stein's "Dandelion Curls" reminds us of William Stack's description. However, we must wonder how poets like Walt Whitman and James Russell Lowell were moved to create poetry for the dandelion.  In Leaves of Grass, Whitman talks about the dandelion's... "freshness, innocence, and trusting face." Hardly the words you will find on the back of a 'Weed-Be-Gone-Sprayer.'

Dandelion! A weed, herb, or flower.

You might be surprised to learn that the dandelion  is in the same plant group as the daisy and sunflower. There is much to learn about this medicinal herb  and child's toy.  "Children," according to William Stack who  wrote  about wildflowers in1909, "love to split the smooth, hollow flower stem with their tongues, and make long, spiral curls and ribbons. They also used them for blowing soap-bubbles, and for sipping water from a spring, or by blowing through them (to) produce funny noises."

Stack also comments on the dandelion's abundance, but reminds his readers that, "the solitary flowers are also a welcome sight in the spring."

Do you agree that this early splash of yellow dotting greening lawns is a welcome sight?

No? Well, you are not alone. Google "dandelion" and you will find that  dandelion extermination efforts ranks right up there with termites. But this is not a debate for friend or foe. It is a search, like all my blogs, to discover the dandelion as a curiosity of nature (albeit-weed to many).

As we discover  more about the dandelion, we will find that it is an oxymoron in the flower world. However, it is precisely this paradox that puts it in the category of "wildflower names that every child should know."

Skunk Cabbage & Pollen & Leaves

It seems that there is more to know about the first flower of Spring. It is a simple test. Stick your finger in the middle of the hood. When you pull it out, the sticky pollen will prove skunk cabbage has earned  true flower status; even if the month is February with snow and ice under your feet.  If a youngster accompanies you, this search for pollen can continue with the other flowers you examine over the season. Another interesting discovery will be the leaf size. Some may measure between as long as three feet. No wonder the Indian used a leaf to line a pot heating on a fire.

Skunk Cabbage & Crocus In Connecticut

 When  Skunk Cabbage melts it way above the frozen earth in February or March, it is one of the first green signs  of Spring in Connecticut, but there are many other flowers that tell us Spring is here. Another early favorite is the crocus.
Read More About It!
Mud Flat Spring by  James Stevenson This is a perfect book to read  with a skunk cabbage spring expedition (as my granddaughter calls a walk into the woods). It is short with jaunty poems that sound and look like Spring.