Re: Skunk Cabbage

> Ok, let's try again, this time adding the message........

:)
> down in the woods the winding brook is suoorting a native planting of ? is it 
> Lyshicton?  skunk cabbages......I would like to move a couple up the brook to 
> a boggy bend where they would look quite nice and natural.
> Your opinions are requested. Should I? Shouldn't I ? Why/Why Not? 

Hi Walter,

   Here's the most detailed page that I was able to find:

      http://www.naturepark.com/skcabbag.htm
   
   If you have a habitat for it, then I'd recommend taking some seeds 
   and scattering them in the fall.  If there are plenty down in the
   bend (and it's your land) then you could probably transplant a few
   when the plant is near dormancy this fall...

   As for reasons why you shouldn't move them, well, I wouldn't do it 
   if the population is small or you could damage other plants in
   the process...

   Although skunk cabbage isn't endangered anywhere in the U.S., Swink &
   Wilhelm do give it a high coefficient of conservatism in Plants of the
   Chicago Region.  What does that mean?  In layman's terms, reducing
   populations of plants with higher coefficients (which range from 0 to 10)
   could degrade the natural quality of the area.

   Now, this has to be taken with a grain of salt.  If other plants in
   the area also have high coefficients, then the impact will be smaller.
   If plants have low coefficients, the impact (or actually, floristic
   quality) is greater when the skunk cabbage is removed.

   If you want to send me a list of other plants in the area, I could 
   give you coefficients for them.  Usually, an area's floristic quality 
   is determined with the following data:

      . The total number of native species in the area (N)          _
      . The mean of the coefficient of conservatism for all plants (C)

          _
      I = C x SQRT(N)

   So, is this more than you wanted to know?  :)

Chris

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