A Botanical Space Heater!
Skunk cabbage usually starts to bloom around the first week in February. Plants store energy in the form of sugar molecules. When metabolizing sugars, usually the idea is to produce as little heat as possible, so most of the energy goes into chemical processes that support maintenance and growth. In February, the skunk cabbage uses an alternate metabolic pathway that turns this on its head, and turns most of the chemical energy in the sugar directly into heat. This heat actually melts the snow and ice around the plant, allowing it to bloom when temperatures are well below freezing.
You
can find skunk cabbage in swamps, floodplains, and other moist, usually
shaded places where the soil is very moist to saturated, but not inundated.
It can be seen at WPC's Northwest Field Station at Lake Pleasant, at Moraine
State Park, or Pittsburgh's Frick Park, just to name a few.
The above photo was taken by WPC President Larry Schweiger.