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."

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.

Oxalate Crystal

Ok. I had to know. What is an oxalate crystal? Why do these two words show up in every discussion of skunk cabbage. What they do is successfully produce a nasty sour taste as well as poisonous condition  in the herbivore's mouth- large deer, or small rabbit, for instance, looking for a green salad after a very icy winter. The oxalate crystals make the muncher's mouth burn fiercely and swell. So it is understandable that any animal who lunches on skunk cabbage will feel the mouth pain before supper. But that's not all.  These raphids, or crystals, are made up of calcium.  Most undesirable is  the oxalate, a  poisonous, crystalline  acid that produces this sour taste  and causes the burning, swelling and choking.  Some scientists suggest that this is the way woody plants get rid of the much needed calcium they must absorb  for growth.  Rhubarb and spinach are two common edible plants that have a significant amount of oxalate crystals. Interestingly, humans who suffer with kidney stones, or oxalate crystals that are excreted painfully in the urine, also are advised to eat a low oxalate diet.

A Bird? An Animal? Or Skunk Cabbage?

Why should children learn to identify skunk cabbage? If you take a young person on a walk while there is still ice coating streams and trees waiting for their tender buds and brown of last years fallen  leaves , the pointed maroon hoods poking through the frozen ground around a bog tell you and your young  friend that  Nature is  getting ready for the changing season from winter to spring. As much fun as sledding and snowballs can be there is an excitement to see this new growth; so tender yet capable of poking through the frozen ground. Just how the skunk cabbage manages this is an amazing story about how it produces heat as it grows. Roger Knutson discovered that the pointed, somewhat curved leaf breaking through the icy ground produces a warmth just like birds and animals. Look carefully at the spiraled hood and you will see a pool of melting ice. The first bees and insects of warmer weather may be enjoying this unique warmth too. The Northeast Native Americans associated this rebirth in February or March, before any other plants poked through the ice and snow, as the cycle of life.

Bring Children Back To Nature Flower By Flower

Bring children back to nature: flower by flower; bird by bird, tree hallow by tree hallow. Curious By Nature  will be explore wildflowers, birds, and many other unique natural wonders one by one.  Just as knowing the name of a person connects you to that person, a child who  knows the name of a wildflower or bird will appreciate its importance and want to preserve it. To begin this adventure,  I will follow Frederic William Stack's book, Wildflowers Every Child Should Know published by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1909. Stack organizes his book according to color. I would like to explore each species by season. So check back for the first amazing wildflower that every child will remember by its smell, if  not its other characteristics. That's right. It is one of earliest plants to appear in New England.  By January or February you should be able to find this  Skunk Cabbage popping up in a still very cold bog along the side of a country road.  I'll be back with my own photo and more interesting facts about this member of the lilly family. Join me for this new adventure, flower by flower, bird by bird.