Skunk Cabbage
Symplocarpus foetidus
Generates its own heat, melting through snow to bloom in late winter — the mottled maroon hood appears weeks before the huge cabbagey leaves. The carrion smell draws the earliest flies of the year. A wetland plant that needs permanently saturated ground, with a contractile root that pulls it deeper each year.
- Family
- Araceae
- Type
- wildflower
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 2–3 ft
- Spacing
- 2–4 ft apart
- Light
- shade
- Soil moisture
- moist, wet
- Soil pH
- acidic, neutral
- Bloom
- February, March, April
- Bloom colors
- yellow, green, brown
- Wildlife value
- pollinators
- Landscape uses
- naturalizing
- Native states
- CT, DC, DE, IA, IL, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV