SKUNK CABBAGE - TODAY'S FLOWERS & WATERY WEDNESDAY

SKUNK CABBAGE
Symplocarpus foetidus

DENIZEN OF THE SWAMP

Seeks still water more than flowing,

Even damp spring woods will suffice!

Bizarre and quite unreal, gotta love it!

Before the frost has left the ground, skunk cabbage melts through ice and snow to get a heads-up, literally. The flower bud has elevated its temperature with respiration, 15-35 degrees C above ambient temperature. Even while blooming the hood allows heat to build up and “ripen” the skunky stink. Heated stink is more attractive, if that’s what turns you on!!

If you stick your finger in the hood it does feel warm. And if your nose is in this close the smell is definitely not sweet!

It’s fascinating wondering how such survival methods ever develop.
The struggle for early, scarce spring pollinators is daunting, but with the right “bait”, rewarding.

As the leaves emerge after flowering, I always marvel at the contrast of the coarse, huge leaves of skunk cabbage and the delicate finery of fernery. Being neighbors really enhances that contrast!

As a fan of ferns and not of stink, my heart leans to finery, but in my head skunk cabbage has a spot.
.......................................RDS

OSI: WHAT'S IT LIKE?

What’s it like?

What’s it like when lost
In conscious thought
And reality’s surreal?
When what is real
And what is thought dissolve,
Uniting to form anew,
Tempered by truth and experience.

What’s it like on restless nights,
When slumber does not quiet,
And mind races on and on
To places quite unknown?
Unknown places seem so known
when night thoughts,
Drifting thoughts, invade the day.

Let the subconscious rise
To guide the pathless way.
Wandering the wilderness
Is the saunterer’s stray.

Nothing’s left to say!

…………………..RDS

NATURE NOTES: ROOTS

ROOTS

In the ageless drama
Where life meets earth,
Gripping great strength
From that so fragile,
Brief moment in the sun,
Living defies the vastness,
The vastness of eternity.

Where tree and earth unite,
The struggle of life is seen.
Roots cleave, mine solid rock,
No apparent rhyme or reason,
Except to live,
Cling and claw at life,
And fight against the ages.

Soft and fragile, temporary and new,
Leaves harden to root and trunk sinew,
Course of season stolen from eternity,
Moot testimony, giving life its due.
...................................................RDS

This posting is dedicated to the memory of
Mary Lou Keifer
“roots show such strength of character”
as did she!

WATERY WEDNESDAY- MARSHMARIGOLD

MARSHMARIGOLD

Caltha palustra

Out of black ooze,
In slowly moving melt,
Brightest lush green,
Encouraged by golden sun,
Eases from the earth.

Mounding watery leaves,
Amid the brown remains
Of growing season past,
Arise above reflected sky,
Gathering flowering sun.

Every yellow bloom
Glows against the dark,
Glows with gathered sun,
Uniting spring with one.
..........................................RDS

TODAY'S FLOWERS-- APRIL HEAT

SPRING EPHEMERALS

WOODLAND VIOLET

RED TRILLIUM

HEPATICA

SPRING BEAUTY

BLOODROOT

ADDER'S TONGUE

Oppressive is the April heat, spring stealing days of bloom, soon the leafy canopy will close as spring woods hasten towards the summer shade.

.

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Brief is the refrain of spring’s ephemerals, heat shortened even more. The glory of spring quickly passes; savoring the moment in in summer oppressive heat is not to be.

.
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Life mysteries are best
In proper perspective kept,
Only gradually revealed
Should such Truths yield.

Long winter wait is hardly worth the effort. Optimism tries to win the day, but time is of the essence. Blink and spring is in retreat, to hide from summer heat. Richness of color, largeness of bloom, all shrivel in dry April, shrink in April heat. We are all adapted to long term averages, be we plants or not, to really reach our peak.

Each weather shortened spring seems stolen from our lot, never gotten back and too quietly is forgot. Memories and fondness harken back to springs that seem to last forever, with time to relish changes life begets with winter’s mantle tossed. But summer with no spring is winter with no fall. Neither quite as bearable, transition much too short, for it is the changing that spring and fall does best.

Endless summer, endless winter, boredom soon prevails, give me change in spring or fall, with time enough to savor, that does seem best. Enlivens life to reach a peak, Frees thoughts stifled by the Bore.

The summer-like dust smothers fragrance so much alive in April’s good, rich, damp earth. RDS

WRITTEN AFTER 90F. HEAT!! The last week in April.