Many Skunk Cabbage plants are at their lush peaks now. This image, taken yesterday morning, is of a Skunk Cabbage cluster in our bog that we’ve been studying for five years.
The plant’s purple pixie-cap spathes, which house its flowers, break through our frozen ground in March by generating their own internal heat over the winter. The heat inside the spathes during winter has been recorded as high as 67 degrees (F), according to one Canadian study. Here’s an image of our study plant breaking through the frozen ground this March:
Here’s an image of the same plant during this year’s April showers:
At this time of May, the leaves of Skunk Cabbage plants are full of water to get them through the summer. By July, the leaves are starting to whither and usually they dry up and disappear completely before the end of August, perhaps getting ready to turn on the heat during our first frost in September. (Brooklin, Maine)