WHERE ARE THE BLOOMIN FLOWERS?
SYMPLOCARPUS FOETIDUS. The mottled purple and green spathes of skunk cabbage poke out of the swampy floodplain of Indian Creek. Â The pointed Spathes enclose the inflorescence, a red spadix.
Not a bad shot eh? Â Â Done while holding Keeba’s leash as she pulled to get her own view of whatever has her attention. The yellow spots on the spadix are the actual flowers.
Consequently, there was not much time to be spent studying this spectacular and unique flower.
Of course there has to be an annoying invasive to stall the moment. Â This one, Lesser Celandine (Runuculus ficaria) is quite troublesome, especially along moist stream banks and floodplains. Later on this; for now we will enjoy the beautiful flower.
Other facts: Â The plant generates its own heat. Â It does have a skunk-like odor in the leaves. Â The large leaves emerge after flowering. The immature leaves can be seen between the flower spathes. Â They are pointy and wrapped up tight, not ready for the cold. One of them looks like it has suffered a bit on the tip.
The bloomin flowers are in Dublin! Saw some the other day.
Enjoy the Dublin flowers! Take lots of pictures.
Skunk cabbage already in Pennsylvania. All we have in Massachusetts is 2 feet of melting snow, but our cherry tree is just showing a few shades of pink.
If you still have snow on the ground, this is a great opportunity to observe the skunk cabbage melting the snow around it so it can bloom. It creates its own heat. I missed this chance and didn’t get a photograph.