Skunk Cabbage is blooming

 
On the first full day of Spring (Wednesday March 21st), I found my first wildflower of 2018 at Mill Pond Park.  It should be no surprise that my first flower of the year was my favorite wildflower - Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). This species blooms as early as February in Mid-Michigan.  This flower has the unique property of being thermogenic.  This means that its metabolic processes generate enough heat that the flowers can melt snow!


May 21st is the latest date for my first Skunk Cabbage of the year since 2014.  In each of the past two years I found my first Skunk Cabbage blooms around the end of the first week of March.  My failure to find a Skunk Cabbage before now has nothing to do with timing of the bloom.  The more time I spend in schools doing classroom programs, the less time I have to spend in the woods.  Many of my programs involve photos that I have taken in the woods and wetlands around Mid-Michigan.  It's a balancing act between learning more myself and teaching what I already know.