Walking Duke

Duke the lab goes for a walk everyday. We head to the pond, where I used to own the nursery and he loves to go swimming. There are various trails, we try and go a different trail everyday. Our walk is about 3 miles roundtrip, occasionally we go twice. Lately I have altered our direction by going to the spring where the skunk cabbage live. This is the best place on the farm for skunk cabbage and it's a small spring that seeps out of a natural depression. They have been in flower for a month, at this point some are about to unfurl their leaves, which is amazing for February. It's a 70 degree day today, so  I was especially anxious to get down there and photograph. Since they live in the middle of the muck, I wear high boots and Duke (the yellow lab) always comes out looking like he has black socks. 

Our Eastern skunk cabbage is botanically known as Symplocarpus foetidus. The foetidus refers to the odor of flower and foliage. The spadix that rises in January surrounds and protects the spath, functioning like a hood or umbrella, it keeps cold and wet from the internal flowers and holds in the heat. The heat the spath emits can rise 30 degrees above outside temperatures, melting away snow and providing a warm place for visiting pollinators. Even in this day and age there is confusion as to how the pollination actually takes place. Flies and beetles are frequent visitors, but the design of the spath allows for  a wind flow, which may account for some pollination. As irregular as the spath appears, it seems to be a highly evolved design to help release odor, build heat and allow air flow (referred to as vortical airflow) . I have read that is doesn't matter what orientation the flower takes  (north, east or south), most of the plants on the farm face south-west, like they are taking advantage of the westerly winds. 

The roots of skunk cabbage are interesting too, they are referred to as contractile. As they grow, they can pull, essentially pulling the roots deeper into the muck. Apparently it's not easy to dig up skunk cabbage. Contractile roots are wrinkly and numerous plants have them. Dandelions, lilies and eucomis are just a few. 

Like the flowers (which can be so malodorous), the foliage smells bad too. Yesterday I saw 13 wild turkeys down by the skunk cabbage spring. Turkeys will feed on the plant, which is considered poisonous, bears will too. Some animals eat the seeds, which are scarce when you consider how many flowers they produce.

We head for the big pond afterwards so that Duke can take his dip and get the muck off of his feet. No matter how cold it is, if the pond isn't frozen, he's in. Today was warm, he went for several dips.

Comments

[Sam Curlew]

Many thanks for posting pictures of the seed of the Skunk Cabbage. I found many of them in a wild turkey crop and thought they might be from skunk cabbage but couldn't confirm until I seen you pictures

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Sam, I 'm glad this helped you figure that out. It's awesome actually.