This plant is unique not just for its smell. It's one of the first signs of spring, and it generates its own heat!
Hi, this is Scott Fitzpatrick from New Hampshire Audubon, bringing you Something Wild.
The fleshy flowers of skunk cabbage are among the first signs of spring. Watch for them in consistently wet areas, such as the edges of marshes and streams. Green spears push up out of the mud and leaf litter and broaden to a mottled red, hood-like structure called a spathe. Inside is the spadix, which is covered with the tiny true flowers that will produce seeds.
Skunk cabbages can bloom even while the snow is still on the ground. Look closely and you’ll see that the snow around the plant has melted. What you are seeing is the result of thermogenesis—the skunk cabbage actually generates its own heat. And it generates a surprising amount of it. The temperature inside the plant can be as high as 90 degrees while it’s still below freezing outside. This enables it to grow and flower earlier than other plants.
The ability to generate heat is rare in plants. Only the skunk cabbage, and several tropical species of Arum and philodendron are thermogenic. Our skunk cabbage actually originated in warmer climes. So why would a tropical plant need to generate heat?
Get close to the skunk cabbage and take a good whiff. Unmistakable skunky odor, right? Well, to the plant’s pollinators, primarily beetles and flies, that perfume smells like carrion and is irresistible. Heat helps to disperse the fragrance. In the north, early season cold is tough on the insects, too. The interior of the skunk cabbage rewards the visiting pollinators with a warm bed. A few species of beetle actually mate inside the toasty refuge of the cabbage.
The benefits to the plant must be worthwhile, because it expends a tremendous amount of energy to stay so warm. Scientists estimate that the skunk cabbage expends as much energy as a small rodent or even a hummingbird.
For Something Wild, I’m Scott Fitzpatrick.
Something Wild is a joint production of New Hampshire Audubon, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
