Stinky sign of spring,
Built-in heaters give skunk cabbage plants head start on season
Before spring arrives on the calendar, it arrives in nature, with the Ottawa Valley’s earliest wildflower pushing up through snow.
The skunk cabbage, named for a smell that you won’t mistake for any rose, is also one of our strangest flowers.
In fact, many plants are beginning to stir in a landscape that still looks frozen and dead. But the skunk cabbage gets a head start because it can make its own heat.
Ottawa consultant Dan Brunton has found a large population of them in a swamp near Perth, a smaller group around Osgoode and many near the St. Lawrence River.
“It pokes up through the snow and it’s literally flowering with the snow all around it. And the plant actually generates heat. You’ll see the plant standing there in a snowy area and within eight or 10 inches of it (up to 25 centimetres) the area is free of snow,” he said. “That gives it a real advantage.”
The plant is believed to burn stored carbohydrates for warmth. The flower blooms in April.
It also has a deep root “down a metre or so, probably into warm soil.” This deep anchor makes it vulnerable to disturbance however. It can’t find a new home in a hurry.
Brunton calls it a “weird critter. Those spathes (outer layer of the plant) are really hard and leathery — you’d be hurt falling on them. Makes sense, since they have to force their way through just about solid ice sometimes.”
Plants all around Ottawa look frozen and lifeless “but inside there’s a lot going on. They’re getting kind of excited about the idea of growing again,” he said.
“Maples (with sap running) are a good sign, but so are a lot of things.”
Buds are starting to swell on many plants. They’re taking a chance. Buds are protected when they’re tightly packed for winter, but opening in a warm spell makes them vulnerable to a sudden freeze.
Fruit growers can lose a crop in a hurry in early spring. ❚ Trilliums and trout lilies are starting to undergo the biochemical changes that lead to growth and flowering too. Like the skunk cabbage, they must race to grow and flower before the trees grow leaves and cover it with shade.
“There’s such a fine line,” Brunton notes. “The snow is just gone (when they do pop up) and there’s just enough time while there’s still enough light before it all shuts down” as the forest turns dark.
Most years they don’t have enough time to produce good seeds, “but it obviously works often enough that they are successful.” ❚ Poplars are getting ready to bloom too. They should be in full bloom by about April 10. ❚ Many other hardwoods besides maples are taking advantage of deep roots, down below the frost, and pumping up sap. “They’re operating on battery power.”
The trees stored energy in their roots in the fall and they need it now, because they won’t generate new energy until they have leaves to collect sunlight.
Skunk cabbage, by the way, doesn’t get any more respect in its official Latin name. It’s Symplocarpus foetidus, and foetidus means stinky.