Such a Strange Flower
Heceta Head, Oregon
2023
Skunk cabbage, an ignoble name for an unusually lovely plant that reminds me a bit of calla lilies. It’s all in a name though; I can’t imagine Kaathryn Hepburn proclaiming “The skunk cabbages are in bloom again.”
We have them all over the Seattle area. I remember one cute first grader in my daughter’s class gave her teacher a bouquet of skunk cabbage on April fools with a sweet smile on her face as if they were roses.
They do have a distinctive odor even outside when they’re concentrated enough. I can imagine how aromatic they’d be in a bouquet on the teacher’s desk.
Perhaps the best of all was the fact that the teacher received them as if they were gardenias.
How big is this skunk cabbage? It seems unusually large compared to the ones I’ve experience. The sense of scale seems off.
Still, a very strange plant indeed, to have 2 blossoms growing from the same plant.
That tall leaf was 18″-20″ I think. Not an unusual height for them at all, at least in that area where I’d say it ranked in the middle of the size range.