Symplocarpus foetidus, commonly known as skunk cabbage or eastern skunk cabbage (also swamp cabbage, clumpfoot cabbage, or meadow cabbage, foetid pothos or polecat weed), is a low-growing plant that grows in wetlands and moist hill slopes of eastern North America. Bruised leaves present an odor reminiscent of skunk. Symplocarpus combines the Greek word symploce, meaning "connection" and carpos, meaning "fruit", to indicate that the plant has a compound fruit. Linnaeus gave the plant its species name of foetidus, Latin for "bad-smelling". The plant produces a strong odor, which is repulsive to many but sometimes described as smelling like "fresh cabbage with a slight suggestion of mustard". The odor increases in intensity over time, as the plant matures, likely due to increased ripeness in the plant's stamens.
Description The plant grows from a thick rhizome, typically measuring 30 cm (0.98 ft). It has leaves that are large, each 40–55 cm (16–22 in) long and 30–40 cm (12–16 in) wide. Blooming early in the spring, just its blossoms can be seen above the mud. The plant is generally pulled back into the earth as it develops every year. The roots permanently wrinkle up due to their contractile activity. Particularly towards the top or older end of older roots, these marks or wrinkles have an odd ring-like appearance. As time elapses the entire stem is buried below ground and the plant becomes practically impossible to dig up. The spathe, which is 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) tall and comes in a variety of colours, contains a spadix that is 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) long in which the flowers reside. While older spathes develop a darker general color with purple smears, younger spathes have a yellowish-green color. Due to thermogenic properties, spathes can melt the surrounding ice in a circle around the spathe. The spathes are hood-like or shell-like in shape. Their mottling closely mimics the fluttering lights and hues frequently observed on underbrush as the sun passes through the leaves of the trees above. On the forest floor, this usually makes it difficult to observe them. Eastern skunk cabbage flowers have both male and female reproductive organs, making them perfect. Dichogamy, or the division of gender expression into two temporal periods, is a common feature of blooming plants and serves to avoid self-fertilization. Because the flowers are protogynous, the pistils, which are the female reproductive components, reach sexual maturity before the male parts do (stamens). The flowers are inconspicuously crowded on the spadix. The spathes act as the conspicuous portion of the plant. The inflorescence differs in size and the amount of flowers it contains. Due mostly to the crowding effect, the flowers do not show three (or its multiple) floral parts, as should be expected for monocots, but four perianth parts. These look almost cuboidal in shape and overlap each other to make a box-like arrangement. In opposition to the components of the perianth are the stamens. The two-celled anthers are extrorse and move rather flexibly. The pistil's overall structural shape is distinctive: the style is cuboidal, the ovary is one cell, and the stigma has three lobes. The leafage consists of two whitish sheathing leaves, which have parallel veins characteristic of monocots. The true leaves are rolled within the hard-coiled center. When the tips have pierced the encasing sheath-like leaves, they are typically tinted purplish like the plant's spathe. The first and even second leaves' tips may have this hue on the exterior. These inner, or true, leaves appear to diverge from monocotyledonous plants and lean more toward the dicotyledonous plants' netted veining. The unfolding of the first three leaves reveals a progressive shift toward the later leaves' netted veining. The veining is palmately netted in every instance. The leaves have fairly big air spaces and loosely packed cellular structures under a microscope. There are several rhaphides present in the leaf's enormous bundle masses. There are a number of other crystal forms, some of which are cuboidal in shape or even spherical. Symplocarpus foetidus reproduce by hard, pea-sized seeds which, when fully grown, drop onto the slimy substrate after developing inside the spadix. Birds, small animals, and floods can then spread the seeds.
Taxonomy Symplocarpus foetidus was first described as Dracontium foetidum by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum in 1753. The British botanist Richard Anthony Salisbury placed Dracontium foetidum L. in genus Symplocarpus in 1812. However, the name Symplocarpus foetidus (L.) Salisb. was invalidly described by Salisbury. Five years later, the American botanist William P. C. Barton provided a valid description for Symplocarpus foetidus (L.) Salisb. ex W.P.C.Barton.
Distribution and habitat The native region of the eastern skunk cabbage is eastern North America. Its geographic range includes eastern Canada, the northeastern United States, and the states of Tennessee and North Carolina in the southeast and Minnesota in the west. In Canada, the plant's distribution ranges from western Nova Scotia to southeastern Manitoba. In Tennessee, it is protected as an endangered species. Its habitats include moist regions including marshes, wet forests, and stream banks. Like others in the arum family, the eastern skunk cabbage grows best in areas with great moisture.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
