I took a very wet road trip to Northern California at the beginning of April. I was too early for the super blooms with the exception of skunk cabbages! They were all along the roads near Ferndale, CA and the Redwoods. I'll be on the lookout for them here now.
One could say Thoreau at least noted Halloween-ish themes:
"I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced."
Judith Harrow notes the heat production by the emerging spathe in the eastern species of skunk cabbage, heat that melt the snow and allows the plant to flower earlier. Does the PNW species also produce heat? Does it experience much snow?
It's my understanding that our local plant doesn't produce heat and we certainly don't get the snow, at least here in the Puget lowlands. In other areas where the plant grows, they probably get more snow.
I took a very wet road trip to Northern California at the beginning of April. I was too early for the super blooms with the exception of skunk cabbages! They were all along the roads near Ferndale, CA and the Redwoods. I'll be on the lookout for them here now.
One could say Thoreau at least noted Halloween-ish themes:
"I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced."
-From "Walden"; 1854
Thanks for posting!
LOVE the book cover, David! Can't wait to read the pages within.
Beautifully researched and written as always. A ‘wetland’s joyous shout’ - I heard it all the way over here in Devon!
Lynne, thanks kindly. Always a pleasure to read your newsletter, too.
Judith Harrow notes the heat production by the emerging spathe in the eastern species of skunk cabbage, heat that melt the snow and allows the plant to flower earlier. Does the PNW species also produce heat? Does it experience much snow?
It's my understanding that our local plant doesn't produce heat and we certainly don't get the snow, at least here in the Puget lowlands. In other areas where the plant grows, they probably get more snow.
Another curious thing about skunk cabbages is that the plant is able to generate and maintain temperatures of 50 degrees or more even in winter. https://sites.tufts.edu/pollinators/2020/02/turning-up-the-heat-strange-and-stinky-skunk-cabbage/
Thanks kindly. Fun.