Skunk cabbages: blooms and info
I was in the Elder Cedar Nature Reserve today, marvelling at the skunk cabbages now in bloom. Aren’t they stunning? The Tri-City news published a fascinating article about this plant the other day: Ode to the skunk cabbage.
Early First Nations people knew that cooking skunk cabbage leaves and roots in many changes of water neutralized the chemical to provide a reliable but not very choice source of calories when food was scarce.
According to B.C. ethnobotanist Nancy Turner, the waxy leaves of skunk cabbage were used to wrap, carry, dry and store many foods. When vegetables, meat and fish were steamed, it was common to encase each food separately in skunk cabbage leaves. Not only were the juices of each food isolated but the wrapping imparted no additional flavour.
Skunk cabbage leaves were also folded into cones to make disposable, biodegradable drinking cups.
In times of famine when the Haida had no bait for their yew fish hooks, they used its roots as lures. The tuber looks like a bunch of fleshy white fingers and can trick a halibut into thinking it’s gulping up an octopus.
The whole article is fascinating; I had a hard time deciding which part of it to quote here. Don’t miss the bit about the plant’s temperature.
[Update: I've removed the link to the article, as the Tri-City news has removed it from their website..]
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