Spring Commencing

Finally, the bloom calendar may begin. Beth and I came across some skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, blooming at Stute Springs in Waukesha County, WI on April 6. These first blooms of spring may convey the death and decay of the muck from which they grow, but I’ll take it.

Skunk cabbage flower--The spadix (a spike of small flowers on a fleshy stem) peeks out from a rich, wine-colored and bulbous spathe (the bract, a modified leaf, that forms the hood here enclosing the spadix). this arrangement is typical of plants in the Family Araceae.

Skunk cabbage flower–The spadix (a spike of small flowers on a fleshy stem) peaks out from a rich, wine-colored and bulbous spathe (the bract, a modified leaf, that forms the hood here enclosing the spadix). This arrangement is typical of plants in the Family Araceae.

Advertisement

About prairiebotanist

www.prairiebotanist.com
This entry was posted in native plants, Phenology and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s