swamp lantern

[piranha]

lysichiton americanus, western skunk cabbage. it well deserves its name, but aside from its foetid odour, it's actually a fascinating and useful plant -- it produces enough heat to melt the snow around it, which is pretty amazing. native peoples ate it (allegedly it tastes better than it smells), used the large summer leaves for lining baskets and wrapping around other foods, and the rhizome has medicinal uses. i've never tried to eat any part of it, but maybe this year. if i can make myself go close to it. i really like the way it looks though, it's delightfully odd.

Comments

[kaet.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I didn't know there were thermogenic plants.

thermogenic plants

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i didn't either, until i met these guys, and was wondering why there was a relatively wide ring around them without snow. so far it's the only thermogenic plant i've encountered, AFAIK. well, i've seen lotus, but not close up and personal.

science news has an interesting intro: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20031213/bob9.asp with biography at the end.

Re: thermogenic plants

[djm4]

They feature in an episode of David Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood. There's an uninhabited island just off the coast on Minorca, where the native lizards have learned to bask on the arum lilies precisely because they're thermogenic. They also eat the flies that are attracted to the lilies. But the relationship goes further than that; the lizards on the island - unlike lizards anywhere else - eat the fruit of the arum, and then excrete the seeds. This turns out to be a better way of fertilising and distributing the seeds than whatever else does it on other islands, and the lilies have become a lot more common as a result.

Re: thermogenic plants

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, interesting. i should get ahold of that; thanks for the pointer.

[ckd]

Janet Kagan used that in one of the stories that's part of her wonderful Mirabile.