Category Archives: Life

Thermogenesis and Skunk Cabbage, simply brilliant!

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Recently, on a walk with a friend down our road, we spotted some early spring blossoms I call, “Spring Indicators.” For me they are screaming, “It’s happening! It’s Spring!!! Hallelujah!!” Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is one of the earliest to emerge. My friend mentioned that they were thermogenic, meaning that they produce their own heat. I had no clue; this was new information for me. She also added that they provide a service to bees during the chilly days of spring. The bees can go into their spathe, which is the hoodlike structure to warm up. I simply loved learning about this mutually beneficial relationship, so I just had to delve deeper. Here’s what I uncovered.

“Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) can generate heat reaching temperatures ranging from 59-95 degrees F above air temperature by a process known as thermogenesis. It uses cyanide resistant cellular respiration to melt its way through frozen ground. The head shell around the flower traps the warm air inside creating the prefect little space heater for honey bees.

Honey Bees prefer to stop at scented flowers and the flowers of skunk cabbage emit differing scents varying from carrion, apple, turnip and garlic to entice the bees. As the bee forages for pollen to bring home to the hive, the flower emanates heat inside it’s shell creating a shelter for the bee that warms up the bees body so it can return safely home in the cold foraging temperatures that skunk cabbage blooms. A smelly weedy swamp plant functioning as a mini sauna and snack bar for bees – How cool is that!” By Anita Deeley at BeverlyBees.com

Then I asked myself; how does creating heat benefit the Skunk Cabbage? Sure, it’s nice to provide a warm safe place for your pollinators, but it takes quite a bit of energy, there must be more to it. Well, Barbara J. Nicholson and Sylvia L. Halkin from the Central Connecticut State University discovered: “Heat production in Symplocarpus foetidus is thought to assist pollination by accelerating the maturation of eggs and pollen in the spadix (aka flower), by melting any overlying snow cover to expose the spathe (aka hood), and by attracting a variety of pollinators through the emission of heat, odor and/or CO2.”

And there is more: “The heating process has another advantage: it helps intensify the flower’s rank odor, described as a combination of rotting meat, apples, turnips and garlic. It’s a perfume guaranteed to attract attention, and early emerging honeybees and other flies are glad to smell it. The lure brings them to flower stamens loaded with pollen, ensuring the flower is fertilized and produces seeds.” by John Challis of the Couchiching Conservancy

Well, that’s thermogenesis in the life of the Skunk Cabbage. Who knew? Mother Nature is fantastic and brilliant; she never ceases to amaze me.

What new natural fact has blown you away recently? Please share and I will continue to share.

Ponderings from the past

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Before the advent of Facebook and email, people shared interesting quotes and cartoons via the mail (aka snail mail) or on refrigerators or bulletin boards in homes and offices. It was very exciting when the copy man came to fix the copier at work ~ he always had something new to share, usually about the hassles of working with idiots. I have always been a big fan of sharing what I believed to be thought provoking quotes or funny cartoons, posting them in my room and then my office when I joined the workforce. When I changed jobs, I would put them into a folder to post again or simply to keep. Recently, I went through my old folder. It was fascinating to reread these quotes and passages that I gathered over 30 years, and to realize that most of them still stir emotions inside me to this day; others are simply reminders to cherish life. What I found rather amazing is that some of the stuff from the 80s is still circulating, but now on Facebook. Enjoy some of my favorites.

By Christian D. Larson; I’ve had this one since High School, circa early 1980s. An important one to revisit from time to time.

And then there is the An Eschatological Laundry List by Sheldon Kopp

  1. This is it.
  2. There are no hidden meanings.
  3. You can’t get there from here, and besides there is no place to go.
  4. We are already dying, and we’ll be dead a long time.
  5. Nothing lasts!
  6. There is no way of getting all you want.
  7. You can’t have anything unless you let go of it.
  8. You only get to keep what you give away.
  9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things.
  10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay off and there’s no compensation for misfortune.
  11. You have the responsibility to do your best nonetheless.
  12. It’s a random universe to which we bring meaning.
  13. You really don’t control anything.
  14. You can’t make anyone love you.
  15. No one is any stronger or any weaker than anyone else.
  16. Everyone is, in his own way, vulnerable.
  17. There are no great men.
  18. If you have a hero, look again; you have diminished yourself in some way.
  19. Everyone lies, cheats, pretends. (yes, you too, and most certainly myself.)
  20. All evil is potentially vitality in need of transformation.
  21. All of you is worth something if you will only own it.
  22. Progress is an illusion.
  23. Evil can be displaced but never eradicated, as all solutions breed new problems.
  24. Yet it is necessary to keep struggling toward solution.
  25. Childhood is a nightmare.
  26. But it is so very hard to be an on-your-own, take-care-of-yourself-cause-there-is-no-one-else-to-do-it-for-you grown-up.
  27. Each of us is ultimately alone.
  28. The most important things each human must do for himself.
  29. Love is not enough, but it sure helps.
  30. We have only ourselves, and one another. That may not be much, but that’s all there is.
  31. How strange, that so often, it all seems worth it.
  32. We must live within the ambiguity of partial freedom, partial power, and partial knowledge.
  33. All important decisions must be made on the basis of insufficient data.
  34. Yet we are responsible for everything we do.
  35. No excuses will be accepted.
  36. You can run, but you can’t hide.
  37. It is most important to run out of scapegoats.
  38. We must learn the power of living with our helplessness.
  39. The only victory lies is in surrender to oneself.
  40. All of the significant battles are waged within the self.
  41. You are free to do whatever you like. You need only face the consequences.
  42. What do you know for sure…anyway?
  43. Learn to forgive yourself, again and again and again and again.