Even Pepe LePew Wouldn't Touch This

Once in summer school school, I took a botany class. It was an easy "A" and I needed the grade points. I do not remember the professor or pretty much anything else I learned except that a weed is a plant that grows where you do not want it to grow.

Even with its fancy Latin name, Symplocarpus foetidus, Skunk Cabbage is a weed, and not worthy of any one's garden unless they live on a few hundred acres with a swampy woodland along the edge far, far away from the house. While it may be interesting looking, it attracts flies and bugs and on a good day, smells pretty heinous.

But one man's trash is another man's treasure. In Tennessee, S. foetidus is on the endangered wildflower list. In some areas of Europe, skunk cabbage is reported to be "highly prized" in aquatic gardens and in public parks.

But it is not endangered in Massachusetts, so Anne should (a) dig very deep all around any signs of the plant and pull it all out, then (b) correct the drainage in her yard so that it has less chance to return next year.