Despite their best attempts to be off-putting, the skunk cabbage is certainly a welcome sign that we’ve nearly made it through the winter!
10.03.2026 15:02
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Despite their best attempts to be off-putting, the skunk cabbage is certainly a welcome sign that we’ve nearly made it through the winter!
Leaves unfold as the weather warms up, typically in April and May, forming a rosette. They emit a skunk-like odor when crushed and can be irritating when eaten, protecting the plant from predation.
The skunk cabbage earns its name by producing an unpleasant odor similar to rotting meat. While we might be repulsed, this actually attracts the flies that pollinate it. After the plant is done flowering, the leaves begin to emerge from a large bud which grows out of the ground next to the spathe.
The buds— hood-shaped, modified leaves called spathes, typically mottled purple or green—can even melt the surrounding snow, reaching temperatures of up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. They shelter the spadix, or flowerhead.
This pungent plant is one of the first signs of spring to pop up in McDonald Woods. Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) gets a head start by generating its own heat, so that it can emerge and begin blooming when it’s still too cold for other plants to pop up.
Skunk cabbage in McDonald Woods.
🧪 Skunk cabbage sighting‼️
Read the full paper below, and don’t forget to check out the orchid show @chicagobotanic!
These findings demonstrate the importance of genetic monitoring in small populations and show that combining management techniques can provide benefits on multiple levels to support healthy, genetically diverse plant populations.
Genetic management even showed the potential to increase seed viability over time.
Researchers found that genetic variation increased in populations of eastern prairie fringed orchids that received genetic management, and populations that received no management or only hand pollination showed little to no change in genetic variation.
A recent study from @chicagobotanic researchers showed that genetic management techniques—combining seed addition with hand pollination—can help reduce the risk of inbreeding depression.
When populations shrink, they are more likely to suffer from inbreeding depression, a reduction in fitness caused by breeding between closely related plants. Some of these wild populations of at-risk plants require the addition of seeds from other populations to become self-sustaining.
The federally listed Eastern prairie fringed orchid (Platanthera leucophaea) was once common in wet prairies in the eastern U.S. As prairie habitat is converted to agricultural land, its populations have declined, becoming small and isolated.
Eastern Prairie Fringed orchid (Platanthera leucophaea) flowers.
🧪 In honor of the @chicagobotanic orchid show, we’re highlighting the important work our scientists do to protect orchid populations year-round!
Early warnings from public gardens help inform those working in invasive plant monitoring, assessment, and control what to look out for. They also share alerts with gardeners and the nursery industry that these plants may become problematic in natural areas.
As of last year, this network, known as Public Gardens as Sentinels against Invasive Plants (PGSIP) had already noted 597 species that could pose an issue, 36% of which had not yet been listed as invasive by any state or province.
Public gardens, like @ChicagoBotanic, are acting as sentinels to identify invasives before they edge into natural areas.
Getting ahead of the problem by identifying possible invasive species early could be key to cutting them off at the knees– or roots!
Invasive species (introduced species whose aggressive growth can quickly crowd out natives) can negatively impact the health of natural areas. Controlling their spread requires huge amounts of time, energy, and often money.
Wintercreeper (Euonymous fortune), a potential invasive species.
Amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurens), a potential invasive species.
🧪 It’s National Invasive Species Awareness Week, and @ChicagoBotanic is on the lookout for potential threats to natural areas.
She found that the daisy grew taller on slag than on topsoil, and was able to successfully transplant one into a slag site managed by the Chicago Park District.
Erin Snyder, another PBC alum, tested whether the federally threatened lakeside daisy could grow in this environment, which is similar to the now rare dolomite prairie the species originally grew in.
The @chicagobotanic Seed Bank team collected seed from one of these rare sedges, Eleocharis geniculata. Before being found at a slag site, this sedge hadn’t been observed in Illinois since 1894.
She and her collaborators have found native grasses, rare sedges, and orchids.
Lauren Umek, a project manager for the Chicago Park District & alum of the @ChicagoBotanic @northwesternu Graduate Program in Plant Biology & Conservation (PBC), has spent years documenting the plant communities of slag sites and studying plant succession.
Instead of treating these brownfields as a lost cause, several current and former Garden scientists are treating them as a novel ecosystem with its own ecological value.
Much of the area is made up of former industrial sites called brownfields, which are covered with slag, a byproduct of steelmaking that hardens into a rocky, nutrient-poor surface.
