Our First Wildflower

What is our first wild flower of the year?

It’s a plant that heats up and melts its way free of the snow.

It’s a plant with an unusual trick to attract pollinators and possibly keep predators away.

And it’s a plant that grows down pulling itself deeper into the ground each year.

Any day now our first wildflower of the year will make its appearance in the wet areas of Baltimore Woods.

This remarkable plant does not need to wait for the snow to melt, or the sun to warm the ground. This plant is one of the very few that can generate its own heat in a process known as thermogenesis. The heat allows it to thaw the frozen ground and melts its way up through the snow. The plant can warm itself to over 60 degrees F and melt a 10” wide hole in the snow to expose its flowers.

If you were to peer into one of the holes in the snow, you would find a mottled, burgundy / yellow-green colored hood-like cone called a spathe. The spathe will grow to 4-6” and open to reveal the spadix, a small, knob-like flower cluster covered with small yellow flowers.

Because it emerges and produces flowers so early in the season, before most of the usual pollinating insects are active, it uses a distinctive and compelling scent to attract insects. The flower has a pungent smell, usually described as similar to raw meat, and this helps motivate the carrion eating insects to do its pollinating work.

As spring comes, and the snow recedes this plant will get a head start on soaking up the sun’s rays; large brilliant green leaves will emerge in a circle around the flower well before the overhead tree cover can leaf out and block the sun.

If the plant is crushed, it gives off a strong, sulfurous odor that may help keep large animals from disturbing it. Another unusual trait is that it grows down and not up.

Each year its roots grow down and then contract pulling the plant deeper into the ground so that the flower and leaves stay flush with surface and the stem remains below.

In late summer, the leaves will die off and the plant will go dormant until the following late winter/spring.

What is this remarkable plant? It is a member of the arum lily family, known as Symplocarpus foetidus to botanists, and eastern skunk cabbage or just skunk cabbage to the rest of us.

If you go for a hike in The Woods anytime soon, keep an eye out in the swampy areas for this wonderful plant melting its way out of the snow.

Blog post by Jeff Devine