_Symplocarpus foetidus_
_Flowers_--Minute, perfect, foetid; 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. Why is the
entire plant so foetid that one flees the neighborhood, pervaded as it
is with an odor that combines a suspicion of skunk, putrid meat, and
garlic? After investigating the Carrion-flower and the Purple Trillium,
among others, we learned that certain flies delight in foul odors
loathsome to higher organisms; that plants dependent on these pollen
carriers woo them from long distances with a stench, and in addition
sometimes try to charm them with color resembling the sort of meat it is
their special mission, with the help of beetles and other scavengers of
Nature, to remove from the face of the earth. In such marshy ground as
the Skunk Cabbage lives in, many small flies and gnats live in embryo
under the fallen leaves during the winter. But even before they are
warmed into active life, the hive-bees, natives of Europe, and with
habits not perfectly adapted as yet to our flora, are out after pollen.
After the flowering time come the vivid green crowns of leaves that at
least please the eye. Lizards make their home beneath them, and many a
yellowthroat, taking advantage of the plant’s foul odor, gladly puts up
with it herself and builds her nest in the hollow of the cabbage as a
protection for her eggs and young from four-footed enemies. Cattle let
the plant alone because of the stinging acrid juices secreted by it,
although such tender, fresh, bright foliage must be especially tempting,
like the hellebore’s, after a dry winter diet. Sometimes tiny insects
are found drowned in the wells of rain water that accumulate at the base
of the grooved leafstalks.