SKUNK OR SWAMP CABBAGE
(Spathyema fetida; Symplocarpus fetidus of Gray) Arum family
Flowers - Minute, perfect, fetid; many scattered over a thick,
rounded, fleshy spadix, and hidden within a swollen,
shell-shaped, purplish-brown to greenish-yellow, usually mottled,
spathe, close to the ground, that appears before the leaves.
Spadix much enlarged and spongy in fruit, the bulb-like berries
imbedded in its surface. Leaves: In large crowns like cabbages,
broadly ovate, often 1 ft. across, strongly nerved, their
petioles with deep grooves, malodorous.
Preferred Habitat - Swamps, wet ground.
Flowering Season - February-April.
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Florida, and westward to Minnesota
and Iowa.
This despised relative of the stately calla lily proclaims spring
in the very teeth of winter, being the first bold adventurer
above ground. When the lovely hepatica, the first flower worthy
the name to appear, is still wrapped in her fuzzy furs, the skunk
cabbage's dark incurved horn shelters within its hollow, tiny,
malodorous florets.
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