Finally spring - Van Cortlandt Park

Skunk cabbage flowers & emerging leaves (common NYC native plant)
After what felt like an eternity, the wait is over! Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) and red maple (Acer rubrum) flowers! Skunk cabbage is an especially interesting plant. It is a member of the Arum family, whose members are typically found in the tropics. (Another temperate member is Jack-in-the-pulpit). The flower consists of a maroon mottled spathe hiding the reproductive parts called the spadix. The flowers coloration and smell (an unpleasant mixture of dung and rotten meat) attracts some beetles and flies that think it's a dead animals (the preferred places to lay eggs). These insects are excellent pollinators. Invertebrate visitors also get the spa-treatment. In February and March, skunk cabbage flowers are able to poke their way through the winter ground by melting the snowy layer above. Through thermogenesis, the flower is kept at a toasty 70 degrees F. This warm air also helps to disseminate the floral "fragrance".

Swamp forest of skunk cabbage
Certainly, red maples and skunk cabbage have been in bloom for a few weeks now, but I am starting to see other signs of greenery - emerging leaves on both; plus found a patch of trout lily (Erythronium americanum) leaves. These were only about 2" long, so it will be at least a week before flowers appear . Also PA sedge (Carex pennsylvanica) had leaves and immature flowering stems. Lots of aster & solidago rosette leaves starting to emerge, some nice clusters of round-leaved pyrola (Pyrola rotundifolia). A new listing for the park - wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata). The latter two species are encouraging signs of healthy forests.

Flowers of red maple (common NYC native plant)