Symplocarpus foetidus

[Kristl Walek]

This post will I hope be seen by Peter Korn---as he was sadly a few weeks too early for the show.

This is *not* my skunk cabbage "mother lode" site that I had written about earlier, where the plants are almost a solid mass, stretching into the wet woods,  but a spot much closer to home. As the trees are only beginning to leaf out, and there was significantly more light, it was much easier than usual to photograph the plants.

Flowers to come in next post...

[johnw]

Maggi - Can you now find the flowers in Kristl's photo #4?

Hint, those are not coconuts leaning against the base of the plants. (coconuts do not grow in Canada)

johnw

[Kristl Walek]

are these not the cutest creatures?

the most striking variation is between the mottled plants (of various tones), and the solid, deep rich maroon spathes....

one can find multiple spathes on many of the old plants.

more to come....

[Kristl Walek]

I think this glossy, solid maroon is striking...

[Paul T]

Kristl,

Very, very cool.  Not something I've ever seen over here, but I think it is one of those for the stink-lovers only!!    I love this sort of plant.  I too think that the dark mahogany is a lovely colour, and has an entirely different look to the speckled ones.  I just love em!! 

[Paddy Tobin]

Kristi,

That was a wonderful series of photographs. The maroon spathes are indeed especially well coloured, especially beautiful while those with mottled colouration are 'interesting', I suppose, beautiful in their own way but not quite the real thing.

Please advise on the growing conditions of these plants. Your photographs show woodland conditions which, I imagine, are not too wet and would almost certainly be dry in the summer as the tree roots soak up more and more of the soil moisture.

How would you describe the soil in which these plants are growing? Heavy loam, open leaf litter, moist, very wet, dry etc?

I am particularly interested as I have a batch of young seedlings, just entering their second year, that I wish to plant out here in my garden and would welcome your advice on soil conditions to best suit them.

And, Paul, one doesn't need to be a stink-lover to enjoy them. They are a feast for the eye even if, perhaps, an affront to the nose.

On another topic, I have the utmost delight here of having another lot of Panax quinquefolia seed germinating, following of germination of some of the same batch last year. Similarly, I am delighted to have Sassafras albidum seedlings back into growth after the winter. This has been one of my longed-for North American trees and despite the reputation that it is difficult to grow from seed and difficult to transplant etc etc I have been very fortunate that it has done what nature intended with no great effort on my part. I may even consider  my own root beer or some Appalachian Tea.

Paddy

[Kristl Walek]

Paul and Paddy---even with my nose almost right in the spathes photographing them, I only caught faint whiffs of the "skunkiness" and the smell is only there at flowering time---the remainder of the season there is only the beautiful large foliage...

Paddy, if you really look at the pictures you will note that in fact most of the plants are growing IN WATER....always found in the wild in mucky, wet places (most normally wet woods, often entirely flooded in spring, or even much later, and in fall, swamps, etc). Even in deciduous woodlands like this, that will dry out somewhat by mid summer one would still be walking "soft" (underlying moisture at all times). Our area is heavy clay, alkaline. And in the woods there would be the usual---leaf litter, etc.

ABSOLUTELY NEVER DRY!!!!!

But how moist is the question...they will certainly not die in standing water....and I do know that there are folks growing them in ordinary, MOIST garden conditions, assuming you have that and can keep it consistently moist. In my garden, they only do *really well* (happy and thriving, not just surviving) in my artifically created bog (always moist to wet). They are NOT HAPPY in my woodland because I have to fight dryness constantly because it is ALL under mature sugar maples---so everything struggles. Any low lying wet or clayey area where other plants might rot would be perfect.

If you are considering creating an artificial environment for them (something to retain water) it will be difficult because of their monstrous root system, going many, many feet into the ground. One can easily break many sturdy shovels (and one's back) trying to extricate one of these (settled) plants out of the ground. I am still recovering from an adventure like that a couple of years ago.

[johnw]

Kristl - Now you will have me tromping through these wet woods comparing Symplocarpus flowers. Why it could get as bad as those Galanthophiles.

Kristl et al:

It really is amazing how they tolerate total submersion. I have also found the Lysichiton will grow with the crown well under water. You're right all of these are difficult to move with there lengthy poker straight roots. I have moved some small S. foetidus but only try to dig small ones growing in the gravel banks up near the asphalt of roads (this only happens in on the coast of Yarmouth Co. where the moisture never seems to abate and the asphalt rarely gets hot enough to melt chewing gum).

Here both Genera need to get their roots down into heavy wet mud / clay. They peter out in purely peaty bogs with no underlying mud, I guess they starve to death. The areas where they grow here are acidic so I was surprised to hear that your wet woods were alkaline.

I have never smelled anything skunky in the plants or flowers - Lysichiton and Symplocarpus.

Do tell us about timing to collect seed. I collected some very big pods (quite hard at the time) last August and promptly forgot them in my coat pocket - huge mistake.  I tossed the slime 2 weeks later into the bog and hope there were seeds somewhere in the mess.

johnw

[Lvandelft]

Kristl,
thank you for showing these pictures.
It is really fascinating to see how these plants grow in nature.
I learned a lot more about these plants now, than I ever would learn out of books.
Reading this I believe they would even grow in our "bulbsand", given enough shade,
because the sand will never dry out.??
But never reach this beauty like in nature.

[Kristl Walek]

Luit,
The plants will certainly grow in full sun--the moisture is the most important thing. Depending on what is far below your sand (at the deep root level for the plant) it might work. Clay would be best.

John, and I am amazed that they grow in acid conditions --obviously flexible devils--the moisture must be more important than the soil alkalinity/acidity.

Seed is collected quite late--I don't have my "seed timing" book at hand---but I do know it is way later than August---the pods should have softened to the touch and/or opened, but not enough for the seed to sink back into the muck.

The beautifully colored seed is huge, like small marbles, white and fleshy inside. A small % will germinate immediately at warm (the genetic one-offs as I call them; the insurance policy), but outdoor treatment over winter is generally required, sown in mucky soil is ideal. Seed should not be allowed to dry out--and if "kept" for any length of time, should be moist packed inside a zip lock in vermiculite.

[johnw]

Kristl - Thanks for the seed photos. Obviously I collected too early.

johnw

[Paddy Tobin]

Kristi,

Many thanks for such good information on  the growing conditions for the symplocarpus. I  think I may go down the line of planting them in large pots or basket submerged in a pond. I do have one place with constant moisture but it is on the roadside outside my home and subject to the vagaries of passing motorists. Of course, on the other side of the road there are several acres of "mash" - soft land, under water regularly in winter, wet almost all the time and certainly soft even in the middle of a dry summer. Hard to mind them if planted there, though.

I shall thing again but must do so quickly as I have plants ready to be planted out.

Paddy

[Kristl Walek]

and just to bring this topic full circle, today I discovered germinated seedlings of the species in my plunge bed....

[Lesley Cox]

An incredible plants with beautiful seeds. Do you ever send these out Kristl?

[Kristl Walek]

Oh yes, Leslie, they have been in my catalogue for a number of years, although they are sold out at the moment. I sent the remainder of my stock along with Peter Korn when he was here. But I will be collecting them again fresh in the fall.

I believe I am the only one who offers them. But then I am the only one who offers a great many species that no one else wants to bother with--meaning the plants that require special storage conditions to preserve viability, and the ephemerals of course.

And of course also meaning the plants that require way too much effort to collect, and should really cost about 1,000 dollars a pack, as we joke here, considering all the variables of collecting, cleaning, etc.

Symplocarpus does not require the sheer nerve of hanging over the edges of cliffs in the mountains, as with some alpines. But the misery of collecting the seed could easily have caused me to drop it from my list after the first time. My main collection site involves hip waders and sloshing around or sinking into smelly organic muck knee-deep (or deeper), with biting bugs covering all exposed body parts, and an intricate system of specially designed waterproof collecting bags strung around one's chest, which get unbelievably heavy and slimey with those large pods, and, and, and ...well, you get the picture.