Native Plant | Skunk cabbage blooms early but can be a bit stinky

This quirky native wildflower is one worth knowing. The skunk cabbage, or Symplocarpus foetidus, is the first flower of our central Ohio spring, appearing as early as February.

It can bloom even in the snow because of its ability to generate significant heat, called thermogenesis, a rare phenomenon in plant biology. It can produce temperatures on average 20 degrees warmer than the surrounding air, keeping the temperature constant and ideal for the flowers to mature.

A member of the Arum family (Araceae), skunk cabbage is related to a more well-known spring wildflower, jack-in-the-pulpit, and to another foul-smelling plant, the corpse flower.

Physical characteristics

As its name implies, skunk cabbage stinks. The odor is described as skunk-like or that of decaying flesh, and it, along with the increased temperature and its carrion-like appearance, attracts the main pollinators available in late winter — flies and gnats.

The individual greenish-yellow-to-dull-purple flowers are tiny and embedded on the surface of a globe (the spadix) and almost entirely surrounded by a fleshy, purple hood-like spathe. The spathe soon withers, and the spadix becomes enlarged into a compound fruit. The fruit matures and disintegrates by late summer or early fall.

The leaves begin to grow once the spathe has wilted, unfolding in a spiraling pattern and forming a large, funnel-shaped rosette of dark-green leaves. The leaves grow up to 36 inches long and 12 inches wide, and have a quilted appearance. They begin to decline once trees have leafed out. Individual plants can be long-lived, up to 100 years old.

Growing conditions

This plant is more likely to be found growing in natural habitats such as wetlands rather than in gardens. It has a massive root system, making it difficult to transplant.

Hardiness zones: 4 to 8

Sun: partial sun to light shade

Water: consistently wet

Soil: damp, humus-rich soil

Maintenance: low

Propagation: transplant young plants or rhizome segments, or grow from seed outdoors in the fall

Pests and diseases: leaf blights are frequent but not fatal

Wildlife

Skunk cabbage hosts the cattail borer moth and the ruby tiger moth. Spiders hide within the spathe to catch visiting insects. The foliage is toxic and inedible to most vertebrate herbivores.

Garden uses

Skunk cabbage can be grown in bog gardens. As a spring ephemeral it doesn’t last long, so plant it close by a path or walkway so it can be seen.

Once a month, the OSU Extension Master Gardener’s Office of Franklin County profiles a plant that occurs naturally in central Ohio.