Skunk cabbage is abundant in wet lands near my home in southeastern Michigan. The genus is one of the rare plants that is endothermic.  It can produce heat and initiate early growth through ice and snow.  Native Americans used the plant as food, medicine and the leaves of the western variety were used to line cooking pits and to wrap foods to be cooked in cedar boxes. (More)    (Also)

Symplocarpus foetidus (L.) Nutt. left and below right.   Western skunk cabbage below left: Lysichitum americanum (L.)

S. foetidus and old boat.
Skunk cabbage, S. foetidus, flower (spadix).
Author, Jim Meuninck and Skunk cabbage on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.  Local First People wrapped salmon and other food in these leaves and then steamed the meal in a pit or a cedar box.
Skunk cabbage patch, Crooked Creek, near Edwardsburg, Michigan.