Thank you for this wonderful post about Skunk Cabbage, Bryan! I especially love the thermometer in the spathe and infrared images. I missed seeing them in my neck of the woods this year as I’m currently in Asheville, NC. While there were plenty of Skunk Cabbages at the UNC Botanical Garden, they’d all already leafed out. I much prefer seeing them as they first push through the ground as you’ve pictured here.
Thanks, Kelly. It makes me happy when you travel -- I enjoy the birds you bring us through your lens and and your art. Say hello to the Pine Warblers and Blue-headed Vireos for me! I hope they're singing for you!
I’m not sure. Maybe I saw something else that I thought was skunk cabbage… also I lived in Thetford when I was growing up, and I remember it from then.🤨
Thanks Bryan for this reflection. I was vaguely on the lookout for skunk cabbage the other day but now I'm going to search it out. It's a good reminder to pay attention to what is close at hand and not gt lost in the depression of the war.
Thank you... This made me think of the one black spruce that grows on my property. Its branches are beyond my reach so I have never found the flowers of Dwarf-Mistletoe growing here. I will have to find and check on a spruce still holding its lower branches at the edge of an opening. The other flowers you describe are ones I do notice. In particular, the spring bloom I am looking for now is the flower of hazelnut. These shrubs bloom by my driveway. Searching for this other sign of spring provides a mental refuge in this time of war (and what feels like a police state too close to home as ICE abducted people on Friday in my neighboring town of Orange, MA). As you noted in your essay, nearby nature has always been a balm for me in times of trouble.
Thank you, as always, Brian, for reminding us who we are when we’re at our best, and where we are at our best: seeing and feeling the wonder of the micro- and macro- beings who sustain us.
Honored I got to visit these crazy plants with you! I’m so glad you brought that thermometer (and that we didn’t lose it 😂). Cheers to the first blooms of the year!
Thanks, Bryan! I started seeing red maple flowers on the ground here in Eastern Mass. last week. I'll have to look up for the orange male vs. red female flowered trees. And congratulations on your great photo of bloodroot on the cover of Northern Woodlands!
I recollect seeing lots of bear paw prints in the mucky wet beside a stream where those stinky ones were blooming. Apparently they eat it and it gets them "going" as a sluggish system can be a problem after months on the couch in the den...
Our eastern skunk cabbage is a bit Frankenstein-ish compared to its relatives out west. Hmm; FOTUS (Felon of the United States, after Donald Trump’s 34 guilty felony convictions, May, 2024). I just had to look up the Latin meaning of foetidus: ”foul-smelling, stinking, or fetid”—just as I suspected, close enough. I meant no disrespect to the skunk cabbage.
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Can't wait 'til you get down to Brattleboro sometime and show me how to walk in the woods like it's an awakening instead of a workout!
Thank you for this wonderful post about Skunk Cabbage, Bryan! I especially love the thermometer in the spathe and infrared images. I missed seeing them in my neck of the woods this year as I’m currently in Asheville, NC. While there were plenty of Skunk Cabbages at the UNC Botanical Garden, they’d all already leafed out. I much prefer seeing them as they first push through the ground as you’ve pictured here.
Thanks, Kelly. It makes me happy when you travel -- I enjoy the birds you bring us through your lens and and your art. Say hello to the Pine Warblers and Blue-headed Vireos for me! I hope they're singing for you!
Love this thank you!!!
Thanks, Bryan. I used to see skunk cabbage in swampy sections of what is now the Stranahan Forest. Nice to read all about it.
Wait -- really? It doesn't normally grow in central Vermont. But there are a few strays.
I’m not sure. Maybe I saw something else that I thought was skunk cabbage… also I lived in Thetford when I was growing up, and I remember it from then.🤨
False Hellebore (Veratrum veride) is possibly what you saw? That would be more likely. Looks like this coming up:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11922439
I’ll bet you’re right! Those shoots out of wet ground look familiar.
Thanks Bryan for this reflection. I was vaguely on the lookout for skunk cabbage the other day but now I'm going to search it out. It's a good reminder to pay attention to what is close at hand and not gt lost in the depression of the war.
Keep me posted. It's sprouting up now in the right wet, warmer woods!
Thank you... This made me think of the one black spruce that grows on my property. Its branches are beyond my reach so I have never found the flowers of Dwarf-Mistletoe growing here. I will have to find and check on a spruce still holding its lower branches at the edge of an opening. The other flowers you describe are ones I do notice. In particular, the spring bloom I am looking for now is the flower of hazelnut. These shrubs bloom by my driveway. Searching for this other sign of spring provides a mental refuge in this time of war (and what feels like a police state too close to home as ICE abducted people on Friday in my neighboring town of Orange, MA). As you noted in your essay, nearby nature has always been a balm for me in times of trouble.
Thanks, Sue. Wise words. I think I'll write on Dwarf-Mistletoe after I find it in flower. So odd! Look for "witches brooms."
Back home where I grew up in a Boston suburb I learned about witches broom on a big old white pine. A real showoff. I will keep my eye out for them.
Thank you, as always, Brian, for reminding us who we are when we’re at our best, and where we are at our best: seeing and feeling the wonder of the micro- and macro- beings who sustain us.
You're so welcome, George. I do indeed find lots of meaning and joy in the micro and macro. Yep, they do indeed sustain us!
A fascinating plant, one that is becoming invasive and unwanted over here.
Wow -- I had no idea! Yikes!
Honored I got to visit these crazy plants with you! I’m so glad you brought that thermometer (and that we didn’t lose it 😂). Cheers to the first blooms of the year!
Thanks to YOU we didn't lose it! (And thanks for guiding me there!)
My favorite early bloomer is witch hazel, which blooms here in Philly in late winter.
Oh, it's among my most favorite plants on Earth!
Thanks, Bryan! I started seeing red maple flowers on the ground here in Eastern Mass. last week. I'll have to look up for the orange male vs. red female flowered trees. And congratulations on your great photo of bloodroot on the cover of Northern Woodlands!
Wow -- moving right along there in Eastern Mass! Male down already. Yikes! Bloodroot -- my destination and salvation every April. Thanks!
I recollect seeing lots of bear paw prints in the mucky wet beside a stream where those stinky ones were blooming. Apparently they eat it and it gets them "going" as a sluggish system can be a problem after months on the couch in the den...
Our eastern skunk cabbage is a bit Frankenstein-ish compared to its relatives out west. Hmm; FOTUS (Felon of the United States, after Donald Trump’s 34 guilty felony convictions, May, 2024). I just had to look up the Latin meaning of foetidus: ”foul-smelling, stinking, or fetid”—just as I suspected, close enough. I meant no disrespect to the skunk cabbage.
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Can't wait 'til you get down to Brattleboro sometime and show me how to walk in the woods like it's an awakening instead of a workout!
Thanks for the plant porn - fascinating. In Australia we are all horrified our Prime Minister is backing the war. Trying not to turn away.