Skunk Cabbage Can Generate Its Own Heat

If you time your skunk cabbage adventure just right, you can warm your finger inside  the teardrop shaped plant.  How does the skunk cabbage do this?  Just like those insulated gloves that keep your fingers warm on the coldest winter day, the hood, or spiral leaf that curls around itself, keeps the air space inside the hood that protects the spadix warm.  Keep an eye of the temperature, however. Skunk cabbage can turn off their heat if the temperature drops below freezing. Since they can't compete with this degree of cold, they do not try.  But when the air is above 32 degrees, the spadix, or the spike-like bud that is covered with fuzzy flowers that never bloom,  can produce a temperature of 70 degrees by drawing on the starches in the roots.
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Skunk Cabbage, Sundew Plants and Strangler Figs: And 18 More of the Strangest Plants on Earth by Sally Kneidel
Did You Know? Skunk cabbage can have roots as long as a foot and live for a hundred years? You may be smelling the same plant that the American Indians used for soups, stews and medicine. Or that  young, mischevious  tribesman may have kicked the same plant you did while running through the stream to spread its smelly odor. 

My Nature Page

It's true. There is a state forest next to my house. I do see some plants and animals that urbanites seldom enjoy . On the other hand, ask any city person who loves the natural world and he will tell you there is nature in the  city  that needs no forest, just a few minutes to notice it. Regardless of the turf, there is nature out there, just waiting for us.

The other day a coyote cub and raccoon must have crossed paths as the first played and jumped up the driveway, while the other lumbered down it. This morning a  couple frogs jumped pass the pool of water collecting in the wetlands, to take a swim in my granddaughter's wading pool. Nearby, the garter snakes were sunning on the boughs of the pine tree. It was a pretty normal morning on the edge of the forest.  Oh, and yesterday morning a fawn just losing its spots (it must have been about 4 months old) and sibling were gobbling greens for breakfast.

Share your nature sighting! Whether it is city or country, large or small, four-legged or eight, or no legs at all, it is  sure to get a,"Oh, my! I saw one of those...." Or even tell us where to go to see it.

Don't forget the wonderful colors of the season or the plants and trees that proudly show them off!

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Take A City Nature Walk by Jane Kirkland (ages 9-12)