it's spring baby you know what that means. plant of the week is back.
this week: skunk cabbage! (symplocarpus foetidus)
You can spot skunk cabbage right now as the flowers emerge from the ground after their winter dormancy. The flowers appear before the leaves and have a very distinctive mottled red and yellow-greenish color, consisting of a hood with the flowers protected inside. The outer protective hood is called a spathe, the internal part is called a spadix. while not botanically considered a composite flower (composite flower: a "flower" which appears to be one single flower is actually a complex grouping of many tiny, independent flowers.... such as a sunflower!), the spadix is one singular fleshy structure covered in many tiny independent flowers. Here's a link to a picture and some more information!
https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife...