Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)
It’s only February, but already signs of spring are emerging. The red-winged blackbirds are calling in the marsh, I saw a honeybee on Saturday pollinating the crocuses in my yard, and the skunk cabbage are flowering in forested wetland areas. Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) flowers, and the structures that surround them, are fairly strange looking as far as flowers go. The outer sheath, called a spathe, is purplish with yellow-green streaks and is roughly teardrop-shaped with an opening where the…