Plants and Animals

What is skunk cabbage?

Link to this answer

CloseClose

Link to this answer

Share this credible answer with others. Simply paste this code into your blog or Web page:

<a href="http://qanda.encyclopedia.com/question/skunk-cabbage-80495.html" >What is skunk cabbage?</a>
E-mail this answer Link to this answer

Skunk cabbage, found in both E Asia and E North America, is one of the most abundant and earliest-blooming northern wildflowers. The unpleasant odor noticeable when the plant is bruised is produced by the acrid sap, which contains needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate, called raphides, that are formed as a metabolic byproduct. This acridity, characteristic of the arum family, is removed from the corms by cooking.

Answer verified with
Get more facts and information about arum . Or, view the full encyclopedia entry from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.

Similar questions: What is an early blooming northern wildflower? Why does skunk cabbage stink? What happens when a skunk cabbage is bruised? How do you get rid of the smell of skunk cabbage? What causes raphides? [ Hide these questions ]

Related research questions

Related research articles

Skunk cabbage _ touch it and you'll pay smelly price.(The Seattle Times)
Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service ...dishlike blooms bright enough to earn skunk cabbage its nickname: Swamp Lantern...pits and as a makeshift plate, skunk cabbage was just the thing. The rhizomes...and plant essences, including skunk cabbage, to retune emotional and energetic...
SKUNK CABBAGE MORE THAN A WHIFF OF SPRING.(Lifestyle)(Column)
Newspaper article from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA) ...wetland where I sometimes walk, the skunk cabbages are punctuating the boggy ravines...unseasonal influences. But the trusty skunk cabbage bides its time in the dank until...sunlight through the alders, the skunk cabbage advertises its ``Didn...
Stalking the Skunk Cabbage.(photography tips)
Magazine article from: PSA Journal Stalking Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanum), is not...as the overcast day is the norm.) Skunk Cabbage, as must now be clear, grows in very...the most difficult time to enter the Skunk Cabbage environment, the good blooms will...
First and fetid - skunk cabbage.(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: New York State Conservationist ...timers call "the eye of spring." Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) -- the...tribes crushed the dried leaves of skunk cabbage and inhaled the fumes to treat...tribes believed that a decoction of skunk cabbage taken three times a day...
Skunk cabbage has on-off heat switch.(reacts to air temperature)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Science News New measurements show that the skunk cabbage bloom has a thermostat that turns...American woodlands, the eastern skunk cabbage's hollow, brown, teardrop...hitched monitoring devices to Canadian skunk cabbage blooms and discovered that...
See all results at HighBeam

HighBeam gives you access to newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles plus press releases, facts, information, and biographies from thousands of sources.