Eastern Skunk Cabbage

Binomial Name
Symplocarpus foetidus

Other Common Names
Swamp Cabbage, Skunkweed 

The Autumn Olive, or Elaeagnus umbellata, is a particularly invasive import from eastern parts of Asia which has already taken a significant toll upon the native flora of New England.  Usually growing as a shrub or small tree, Autumn Olives can oftentimes be found flourishing in disturbed woodlands, lining miles of trails and producing dense crops of red berries well into December.  Let's take a look at how and why umbellata is able to compete so effortlessly with New England's indigenous plant life.

Just under 80% of the air we breathe is nitrogen, an element which is essential for the growth of plant life.  Most plants and trees, however, have little or no means of directly accessing this airborne supply.  Instead, they must rely on the nitrogen released by decomposing organic matter in the soil (such as fallen leaves and trees) or enact the assistance of symbiotic bacteria which can draw it from the air and pass it on to the root system.

But the roots of the Autumn Olive possess unique nodules which bypass this limitation, supplementing its intake of nitrogen by 'fixing it' (converting it into ammonia) from airborne supplies.  Such an adaptation enables the plant to grow in poor soils that lack an abundance of dissolved nitrogen.

Some native plants of New England possess similar supplemental skills and, for thousands of years, they have thrived in niches where poor soil ensured very limited competition amongst a narrow range of species.  When the Autumn Olive arrived in the Northeast, perhaps originally making its home in backyard gardens, it quickly spread to these areas.

Native plants that coexist in low-nitrogen soils developed in predictable habitats where only specific types of plants could possibly proliferate.  Such a reliable micro-habitat gave rise to a very delicate interplay between these species in which each was able to use its own unique qualities to persist side-by-side with the others.

This homeostasis was shattered by the Autumn Olive, which reproduces with incredible speed, growing faster and larger than native competitors.  Normally kept in check by other species in its Asian homeland, umbellata quickly and aggressively dominates New England biomes.  Indigenous plants which once fared so well in nitrogen-poor soil are being displaced at alarming rates, even slowly disappearing in isolated areas where Autumn Olives have had considerable time to take hold of the landscape.

In decades to come, entire orchards of Autumn Olive may well be found flourishing upon the forgotten graves of countless native species, which are sadly becoming more of a memory than a reality all over New England.

Description | Shrub or tree usually no taller than 15 or 20 feet. Leaves lance-shaped or ovate. Flowers are pale yellow.

Fruit | Produces very dense crops of red berries (technically drupes), roughly ½-inch in diameter, with white or silvery speckles.

Invasive Distribution | Eastern half of the United States.

Place of Origin | Eastern parts of Asia

Date of Introduction | 1830^*

Edibility | Fruits are edible and relatively easy to positively identify.^**

Photography | Specimens shown were observed and photographed in early November near Broad Brook Reservoir in Cheshire, CT.

^* Date of introduction as recorded by United States Department of Agriculture
^** For informational purposes only.  Always use extreme caution when consuming wild plant life.

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