First sign of spring in the watershed

Skunk cabbage, perhaps the first harbinger of spring, pokes through the snow in boggy places all over the Navesink watershed every February.  These plants are adapted to cold conditions and have one of the longest growing seasons of the native perrenials.  The small purplish leathery swirl will transform into the familar large green fan-shaped leafed plant of the boggy of the forest and shaded stream peripheries.  The plants in this picture were photographed near the Nut Swamp Brook on February 17, 2013.