Symplocarpus foetidus
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Photos Courtesy Renee Brecht |
Britton & Brown |
| Botanical name: | Symplocarpus foetidus |
| Common name: | Skunk cabbage |
| Group: | monocot |
| Family: | Araceae |
| Growth type: | forb/herb |
| Duration: | perennial |
| Origin: | native |
| Plant height: | 1 - 2' |
| Flower: | maroon, sometimes streaked with yellowish green, tiny, found on the spathe inside the hooded spadix; entire flowering structure is 3-5" high |
| Flowering time: | flowers February to March, sometimes as early as January |
| Habitat: | swampy ground, especially in woods |
| Range in New Jersey: | northern, middle, and Cape May
districts |
| Heritage ranking, if any: | n/a |
| Distribution: |  |
| Misc.: | USDA
lists as an obligate wetland species, occurs almost always (estimated
probability 99%) under natural conditions in wetlands. Witmer Stone remarks of this curious plant: "As early as February we may find the maroon spathes of the Skunk Cabbage pushing their noses out of the mud in some springhead where the ground is not deeply frozen, sometimes uniformly colored, sometimes streaked with yellowish green, and if we look inside we shall probably find a dust of pollen on the bottom of the chamber, showing that the plant is truly in bloom. It will be some weeks before the leaves begin to show themselves, and by that time the spathes will be pretty well withered...." Additional link |