Quite tropical-looking, don’t you think? This leaf is about four and a half feet tall.

They’re poking up out of the water. Then there’s a gap between the water and the ice, and the ice is still affixed to the swamp lanterns.

(And where was I when I took this photo? In the water, of course.)

Spring on Gabriola means swamp lanterns (skunk cabbage) will be blooming in shady streams and wetlands all over the island. Today we wandered into such a stream, more or less by accident, and had to wade though it to get out of the woods again. There were thousands and thousands of these plants, each a shining bit of cheer.

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..]

They’re just tiny things now, but will look like this when they bloom. Impressive, no?

The skunk cabbage page at wildmanstevebrill.com has lots more information about the plant, including a good reason to avoid eating skunk cabbage:

Marginally edible at best, skunk cabbage contains calcium oxalate crystals, which cause the must unpleasant burning sensation of the mouth and tongue. Boiling doesn’t dispel this quality. I once dried young skunk cabbage leaves in a food dehydrator for a week, following instructions from Lee Peterson’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Then I simmered them with lots of other vegetables, tomatoes, spices, and beans, making chili. I finally dispelled the calcium oxalate crystals from the skunk cabbage — unfortunately, they went into my mouth!

After cursing out Peterson for an hour before the burning and stinging of my tongue and mouth, caused by one bite (which I quickly spat out), subsided, I flushed the entire recipe down the toilet, and the plumbing’s never been the same since! [continue]