Skunky

This is an up close and personal report on skunks. No. No Not that kind.

The kind that is among the first plants to reach up to the sunlight in earliest spring. They're call skunk cabbages. The troutbirder family had gone hiking up a small ravine in Forestville State Park to search for this oddly name plant. The woods had that bare gray look to it before the trees had begun to leaf out. The ground was leaf littered without much of anything growing yet. I was looking for some "seeps". That is a area that would be permanently wet thoughout the summer. It might on a hillside or along a temporary streambed coursing with spring runoff.

Baron as always led the way.

There they were at the base of a small outcropping.

When the skunk cabbage first pops up in the spring, it looks quite like something you've never seen before. The "flower" is rather exotic as well...... and yes it does have a, shall we say, quite unique "aroma."

It's been a long hike this morning so Baron and I plunk down in the leaves for a breather. Our hunt successfull we know for sure now, that the skunk cabbages having arrived..... so has spring!