Skunk Cabbage

Dear Lilliputian ,

Today I went down to the river and saw Skunk Cabbage growing everywhere . It is one of the earliest plants to start growing in New England . It starts to push up through the cold wet snow in February . It is called Skunk Cabbage because of the way the leaves smell when you break or step on them . It smells very skunky ! The flower is a very strange looking part of this plant . 

Inside a maroon sort of hood there is a yellow ball with little clumps of tiny yellow flowers growing all over it . If you click on the photo above you can probably see them better . This part of the flower is very warm . Even when it is very cold outside , inside that maroon hood the yellow ball of flowers is about as warm as your home . Birds , frogs , and even early bees have been known to cuddle up to this yellow ball to keep warm on cold Spring nights . Most people don't know this about the Skunk Cabbage but the birds , frogs , and bees do and I think they try to keep it a secret . 

If you are interested in stories about nature you might like to read a book or two by an author named Thornton Burgess . He lived in Sandwich on Cape Cod and there is a museum there . I read Bowser the Hound to my children , and I have heard Old Mother West Wind is also a good one ...

Until next time ,

Wildbee