Eastern Skunk Cabbage,
Clumpfoot Cabbage,
Foetid Pothos,
Meadow Cabbage,
Polecat Weed,
Skunk Cabbage, or
Swamp Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), commonly known as simply
Skunk Cabbage, is a low growing, foul smelling plant that prefers
wetlands. Native to eastern
North America, it ranges from
Nova Scotia and southern
Quebec west to
Minnesota, and south to
North Carolina and
Tennessee. It is protected as
endangered in Tennessee.
Eastern
skunk cabbage is notable for its ability to generate temperatures of up
to 15-35°C (59-95°F) above air temperature by cyanide resistant
cellular respiration in order to melt its way through frozen ground,
[2] placing it among a small group of
plants exhibiting thermogenesis.
Even though it flowers while there is still snow and ice on the ground
it is successfully pollinated by early insects that also emerge at this
time. Some studies suggest that beyond allowing the plant to grow in icy
soil, the heat it produces may help to spread its odor in the air.
[2]
Carrion-feeding insects that are attracted by the scent may be doubly
encouraged to enter the spathe because it is warmer than the surrounding
air, fueling
pollination.
[3]
Eastern Skunk Cabbage has contractile
roots
which contract after growing into the earth. This pulls the stem of the
plant deeper into the mud, so that the plant in effect grows downward,
not upward. Each year, the plant grows deeper into the earth, so that
older plants are practically impossible to dig up. They reproduce by
hard, pea-sized
seeds which fall in the mud and are carried away by animals or by floods.
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