It’s Valentine’s Day and, for those who like their Valentine’s flowers secret and from a wild hothouse, this is the time for you. As you see here, the first plants of the year have been emerging through the snow and ice for at least a week, but their flowers are hidden in their comfortably heated housings.
Yes, the missile-like spathes of eastern skunk cabbage are melting their surroundings and rising despite freezing temperatures. Hidden within each of them is a round bouquet (a spadix) of the plants’ minute flowers:
Leighton Archive Image
It’s one of the most amazing processes in nature. Eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is one of a very few plants that has evolved the ability to metabolically generate considerable heat, which enables the plant to get a jump on competitors before spring arrives. Skunk cabbages have been known to raise the temperature of the flowers in their spathes to 71.6˚ F (22˚C), even when the surrounding temperatures are freezing.
Not only does that heat keep the flower from freezing, but it also is thought to attract and shelter the earliest pollinators, which crawl into the side opening of the spathe for a little refreshment, then leave and help propagate the species. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 12, 2024, except as indicated.)