Lysichiton is a small genus of two species in the family Araceae (order Alismatales), commonly known as skunk cabbage or swamp lantern. The genus was described by the Austrian botanist Heinrich Schott in 1857 and belongs to the subfamily Orontioideae, a basal group of "proto-aroids" that retain ancestral features — most notably bisexual flowers with small petals — that more derived members of the arum family have lost.
The flowers are arranged on a fleshy spike called a spadix, enclosed by a large, hooded or boat-shaped bract called a spathe. In Lysichiton americanus, the spathe is bright yellow with a green-suffused apex; in Lysichiton camtschatcensis it is white with only a trace of green. After pollination, green fruits develop embedded within the spadix, each typically containing two seeds. The plants produce large, broadly oblong leaves — either just before or shortly after flowering — borne on short petioles, and die back each winter to a stout vertical rhizome.
The two species occupy opposite sides of the North Pacific: L. americanus (Western skunk cabbage) ranges from the Aleutian Islands south to Santa Cruz County, California, while L. camtschatcensis (Asian skunk cabbage) is native to Japan and the Russian Far East. Both are wetland plants of marshes, stream margins, and boggy ground.
Lysichiton americanus was introduced into cultivation in Britain in 1901 and has since naturalised in marshy areas across the British Isles, where it is now considered an invasive non-native plant. A hybrid between the two species, Lysichiton × hortensis, arose in cultivation and is larger than either parent with a less pungent scent.
Etymology
The name Lysichiton is derived from two Greek words: λύσις (lysis, "dissolve") and χιτῶν (chiton, "armour"), alluding to the armour-like spathe that encloses the inflorescence and quickly withers after flowering. Schott originally used two variant spellings — Lysichitum (Latinized) and Lysichiton (Greek ending) — and the correct form was debated until 1956, when Lysichiton was formally adopted.
Distribution
Lysichiton americanus is native to western North America from the Aleutian Islands south to Santa Cruz County, California. Lysichiton camtschatcensis is native to northeastern Asia, including Japan and the Russian Far East. L. americanus has also become naturalised in marshy habitats across Britain and Ireland following its introduction into cultivation in 1901.
Ecology
Both species are obligate wetland plants, growing in marshes, bogs, and the margins of streams and ponds. The distinctive spathes emerge in early spring, often while snow is still present, and generate a notable odour that attracts early-season pollinators. Lysichiton americanus is regarded as an invasive species in parts of Europe, where it spreads vegetatively and by seed in riparian and marshy habitats.
Taxonomy Notes
The genus was described by Heinrich Schott in 1857 as monotypic, containing only L. camtschatcensis. American populations were treated as conspecific until 1932, when Eric Hultén and Harold St. John separated them as L. americanus. Lysichiton is placed in the subfamily Orontioideae alongside Orontium and Symplocarpus, a group considered to represent early-diverging lineages within Araceae that retain bisexual flowers with rudimentary petals — features absent in most other aroids.
Cultural Uses
Lysichiton americanus was used by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in several ways, including as a food source (young leaves and roots, prepared carefully to neutralise calcium oxalate crystals) and for wrapping and lining food storage. Both species are cultivated as ornamental waterside plants in temperate gardens.
