After volunteering for a few months, I was asked to lead a hike by myself along the trails on the center’s property.

We set off with checklist in hand to wander the trails looking for plant and animal life. We had rounded a bend when someone said they smelled a skunk! Having walked the trails before I knew that what they were smelling was not a skunk.

Well, at least I hoped it wasn’t. I was almost certain the foul odor we were smelling was because of plants and not a skunk. This odor is meant to attract pollinators such as flies and bees. It is believed the odor in the leaves may keep larger animals from eating the skunk cabbage plants.

Along the path, we either stepped on or broke leaves and released the odor of Symplocarpus foetidus, otherwise known as skunk cabbage or eastern skunk cabbage.

These plants are found in wetlands and swampy woods of eastern North America. Many of my hikers were worried that the plants were poisonous to the touch. These plants aren’t, but they are toxic if eaten. I did caution my hikers to wash their hands after the hike if they were going to have a snack.

These plants are perennial wildflowers. Eastern skunk cabbage is notable for its ability to generate temperatures between 27 and 53 degrees F above air temperature in order to melt their way through the frozen ground, placing it among a small group of thermogenic plants.

These plants flower while there is still snow and ice on the ground and are successfully pollinated by early insects that also emerge at this time.

Some studies suggest that beyond allowing the plants to grow in icy soil, the heat they produce may help to spread the odor in the air.

Carrion-feeding insects that are attracted by the scent may be doubly encouraged to enter a hoodlike leaves because it is warmer inside. The flowers appear before the leaves and are covered by mottled maroon hoodlike leaves called spathes which surround knoblike structures called spadices.

They contain many petal-less flowers. When first appearing, the spadices appears almost alienlike. The plants can grow in height of about 18 inches and the leaves are about 16-22 inches long and 12-16 inches wide.

These plants have roots which contract after growing into the soil. This pulls the stems of the plants deeper, so that the plants are sort of growing downward, not upward.

Each year, the plants grows deeper and deeper so that older plants are practically impossible to dig up. They reproduce by hard, pea-sized seeds which fall in the soil and are carried away by animals. Gardeners have used skunk cabbage as a way of attracting pollinators or beneficial wasps as well as repelling many mammals. Because of the burning sensation when eaten most animals avoid these plants.

For the insects that love the scent and nectar from the plants they are a natural and healthy part of their diet.

However, if the smell doesn’t bother you and you want to attract the right kind of insects to your garden, adding these unusual wildflowers might be just the right choice.

I have tried many kinds of natural repellents with little success so I may have to add these plants to my garden to naturally repel the pests that want to nibble on my plants. Just don’t inhale too deeply when you step into my garden this spring!

Jeannie Carl is a naturalist at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill. For information on the Carbon County Environmental Center, visit www.carboneec.org.