Re: Skunk Cabbage

[john wheeler <jcwheel76 at yahoo_com>]

Hey Gang,


Chuck H asked about skunk cabbage:

Chuck, this plant is near to my childhood heart,
because my friend's and I would roam the forrest
behind our houses and find this plant....Here comes
the good part:

We would take long, thin sticks and cut the skunk
cabbage into into ribbons. Then, in typical little boy
fashion, we would chase each other all around and try
to smear the scent in each others hair with the
shreds. After just being within a few feet of the
shredded leaves we would smell like the plant anyway,
so it was all moot. hehe....those were the days.

The plant itself is most common in shaded areas of
water logged woods and roadside ditches. They grow in
huge stands of hundreds of plants. They kinda look
like the movie "Alien" when they first discover the
hive of eggs. All symetrical and evenly spaced. It is
very common here in Delaware.

It appears just like wild cabbage, and grows in a
large spherical mound. It would be a large aquarium
plant, and probably an offensive one at that. It truly
smells like skunk....faintly even when untouched.
Trimming would be very unpleasant.

I have never encountered this plant submersed, but
many of our "difficult" plants don't grow totally
submerse except in extreme conditions, or with the
help of our technology hand. ie: elevated CO2,
filters, available nutrients, etc. 

I could easily send anyone on the list as many as they
would like just for shipping cost. In fact, I would
pay for the first one just for a photo of the persons
face when they unwrapped that skunk cabbage for the
first time. HAHA!! ewwwwwwww!!

John Wheeler

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