First sign of spring

Marguerite-Marie gave me the idea for some photos of spring. Well, Bretagne is a bit farther along than we are, but the first sign of our spring plants have popped out: Skunk cabbage.

Yes, incredibly, Symplocarpus foetidus is one of the very earliest plants to arrive; even before the crocus and snowdrops. That's because the plant is warmer than the ground and air it grows in! It melts its way through the frozen ground to reach the sun. I only ever saw it in swampy ground: the water here is just below the surface. It smells bad if you step on it, but it grows in places most people don't want to step anyway!

Spring! It's just around the corner, and this is the first plant of the new season.