Skunk Cabbage Blessings
How the Swamp Lantern ecosystem contributes to the health of the water cycle
If you have taken notice of this message it means that Skunk Cabbage has come to bless your life. It is the “Swamp Lantern” of the great forest. It is said that it creates sunshine from the muck of stagnant and stale emotions. It lifts a gloomy mood seeded from an idea of hopelessness and encourages the reinvention of spirit and joy. It can once again connect you with your physical presence on this beautiful Earth.
As plant spirit medicine Skunk Cabbage can lift a feeling of being stuck or constipated in your life. Perhaps this is being expressed physically as large intestine/colon problems, deep skin issues - such as eczema, shingles, or cancer; or as thyroid imbalances or being overweight?
“Lysichiton americanus”, also called “Western Skunk Cabbage”; “Yellow Skunk Cabbage” (UK), “American Skunk Cabbage” (Britain and Ireland), or “Swamp Lantern”. It is a plant found in swamps and wet woods, along streams and in other wetland areas of the Pacific Northwest, where it is one of the few native species in the Arum Family. The plant is called Skunk Cabbage because of the distinctive "skunky" odor that it emits when it blooms. This odor will permeate the area where the plant grows, and can even be detected in old, dried specimens.
This is a photo I took of a Western Skunk Cabbage in bloom. The deep shadows of the rainforest can be home to wild flowers such as these and other plants which require a special kind of pollinator environment. The distinctive odor of the Skunk Cabbage provides a unique pathway that attracts pollinators, scavenging flies and beetles.
The Skunk Cabbage is largely ignored by people, some consider the plant to be a weed of sorts but its roots are food for bears, who eat it after hibernating when is serves as a laxative or cathartic. Imagine as resource extraction occurs such as logging; these wetland areas could be destroyed. Plant populations can’t recover and the species is ignored and not propagated. As an important member of the forest, it goes missing and this results in the bear population being weakened as well as wild pollinators being impacted which results in a decline of other wild species.
The plant was used by indigenous people as medicine for burns and injuries, and for food in times of famine, when almost all parts were eaten. The leaves have a somewhat spicy or peppery taste. However, caution should be used in attempts to prepare Western Skunk Cabbage for consumption, as it contains calcium oxalate crystals, which result in a gruesome prickling sensation on the tongue and throat and can result in intestinal irritation and even death if consumed in large quantities.
Although the plant was not typically part of the diet under normal conditions, its large, waxy leaves were important to food preparation and storage. They were commonly used to line berry baskets and to wrap around whole salmon and other foods when baked under a fire. Even today it is also used to cure sores and swelling.
We probably have a lot to learn about the Western Skunk Cabbage because we know so little about the wetlands that it grows within. Often found in small isolated bogs its ecosystem is often ignored because it might not be linked to a larger wetland connected to a waterway. Thus it lacks legal “riparian zone” protection. Small isolated wetlands such as these that are full for only part of the year are often the first to be removed for development or agriculture, but research shows that they can be twice more effective in protecting downstream lake or river ecosystems than if they were connected to them.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo found that since these small wetlands are disconnected, pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus get trapped. All wetlands act like sponges, providing flood protection by absorbing the vast volume of water that can be suddenly released from rainfall or snowmelt. Improving water quality, providing habitat, increasing biodiversity, and trapping carbon are just some of the many environmental benefits wetlands provide. Their destruction increases our vulnerability to the extreme effects of climate change, including flooding, drought and the frequency of storms.
"This is especially a concern in regions like southern Ontario, which has already lost more than 70 per cent of its wetlands and is under threat to lose more from increasing population and developmental pressures. The rise in human population also increases the amount of pollution," said Dr. Nandita Basu, a professor at Waterloo and Canada Research Chair in Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology.
"If pollutants aren't caught by small wetlands, then they'll run into lakes and reach beaches and eventually impact our supply of drinking water and ability to use the beaches for recreation."
Research used 30 years of satellite imagery from across the United States to determine how 3,700 wetlands were filling up and draining as a function of seasons and climate. Next, they estimated how much nitrogen would be removed by these water bodies.
Being disconnected can actually be better because they are catching the pollutants and retaining them as opposed to leaking them back to the stream waters. Smaller wetlands also function best as a group, forming an interconnected "landscape mosaic" which provide unique habitat and safe breeding grounds for species such as salamanders and migratory birds.
These small, geographically isolated wetlands act like landscape filters, preventing excess nutrients, sediments and contaminants from entering larger waterways.
Unfortunately, many restoration efforts have focused simply on restoring wetland areas, with no consideration of the type or size of the wetlands being restored.
So the next time you see a small patch of Skunk Cabbage make a note as to how this small place is connected to greater relationships and the water cycle that we all depend on.
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