Skunk Cabbage

a plant closely allied to the jack-in-the-pulpit, and the calla. In earliest spring a wide fleshy hood, corresponding to the green "pulpit," pushes up three to ten inches in springy places in bogs. These hoods or spathes are spotted with purple, brown, and green, intensifying into red and yellow. They shelter a fleshy globe or cylinder-shaped head of flowers. When bruised, this part of the plant gives off an offensive odor, suggestive of the animal for which the plant is named. Larger oval leaves one foot in width follow later. The fruit ripens in August. Nova Scotia to North Carolina and west to Minnesota.