Spring Is Coming-The Skunk Cabbages are Blooming!

Today was a gorgeous day in southeastern Michigan. It was sunny and 5o degrees without hardly any breeze. My daughter, Rosie, and I decided to take a walk out in the woods to try to find something blooming or a sign that spring was right around the corner...and we had luck!

Most of the land around our woods is marshy, and we aren't able to explore that muddy area unless the ground has been cold and icy. We had a huge ice storm this week which made the ground cold and almost perfect for walking. With our muck boots on, Rosie and I decided to go on an outside adventure...especially since this time of year we don't have to worry about bugs attacking us or stepping on snakes that "should" still be deep underground hibernating.

Three years ago when we moved out to the country, I noticed a weird plant that grew around the marsh. I've always referred to this plant as the Tear-Shaped Alien Plant...a very technical term that you won't find anywhere but here, haha. The purplish-green plant is about the size of my fist and almost looks like it is made of plastic, because it has a shiny, waxy gleam in the sunlight. They are beautiful! While Rosie and I were walking around, we noticed hundreds of these plants have already grown out of the ground, and it's not even March yet!

We were so excited to find our Tear-Shaped Alien Plant that we started taking hundreds of pictures of them. Walking around the marsh with my camera in hand, I suddenly noticed the dreaded skunk smell. I've come to really, really, really NOT like that ominous smell. It's the smell of terrible things to come after some hidden, camouflaged skunk has sprayed and you don't know about it until it's too late. It's the smell of spending hours and hours in the shower covering your dog with every natural remedy to take the stench out of her fur, yet NOTHING takes that smell away. I have more experiences with skunks than you can probably count...but I will save those grueling stories for another post at another time.

Our boots, at this point, were about ankle deep in mud and we probably couldn't run too quickly away from a skunk if we had to. The smell kept getting stronger and stronger, but Rosie and I couldn't find a skunk lurking around anywhere. Since we were walking through a bunch of muddy muck, I just figured that perhaps we had stepped on some skunk poop and that is where the atrocious smell was coming from. We slowly made our way back to the house hoping that we wouldn't disturb a nest of skunks who made a home out of the marsh.

Later on I was wondering what I should blog about this week, so I decided to look up more information about the first plant of spring, my Tear-Shaped Alien Plant. Using a nature app on my phone, I had a huge laugh when I discovered what its actual name is. It's called the Skunk Cabbage....named after the strong skunk smell it emits after being stepped on. Animals are repulsed by the Skunk Cabbage's smell and the burning sensation it leaves behind after being eaten. And that's why every spring, hundreds of these things grow everywhere around the marsh. Nothing wants to eat them! It's also a plant that can generate its own heat, about 20 degrees warmer than the surrounding temperatures, so it can grow in ice, snow, and very chilly temperatures.

Even though the Skunk Cabbage will always be called the Tear-Shaped Alien Plant in my mind, it's so nice to know that sometimes when I smell a skunk, it's just a stinky plant I live by and not the cute little rodent that causes my dog to stink for months on end.

Thanks for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly