the demise of the skunk cabbage (UPDATED)

I was wondering what was going to become of these magnificent plants.  They looked so healthy and solid and nothing was eating them, not even bugs.  Alas, they seem to be just bowing down now and disappearing!  There was a lot of rain yesterday, and that gave them a big swoop over; but it is apparent that they are giving ground to the ever encroaching array of green things that are coming up everywhere.  I guess their time and job is done. 

 

I didn't find Jubilee's leash today, even though we went back to the very spot where I thought I might have laid it down.

UPDATE ON THE DECAY OF SKUNK CABBAGE from The Nature Institute:

"In our area the leaves of the trees and bushes unfold in May and a homogenous dark green canopy has formed by mid-June. At this time the leaves of skunk cabbage begin to decay. They don't dry up and fall onto the ground to become part of the leaf litter that is slowly decomposed by fungi over the next year. Skunk cabbage has its own characteristic way of decaying. The leaves get small holes in them, begin to hang down, and parts turn black and somewhat slimy. Essentially the leaves dissolve. This dissolution occurs rapidly, so that already by the end of July or early August the leaves are gone. You only find a few remnants of the bases of the leaf stalks. What dominated the appearance of the wetland in May has disappeared in August. 


As strange as this way of decomposing at first seems, after studying the plant more intensively you begin to see how it fits with other characteristics. While growing, a plant is in its most fluid state. It then forms hard fibers, which, in biochemical terms, is a process of condensation and drying out. When the plant dies even more water is lost, and decay of the woody fibers sets in. Skunk cabbage stays in the watery phase; its substances don't condense and dry out. Therefore the dying leaves appear to evaporate, since they are mostly water, and almost no dry matter is left on the ground to decay. Skunk cabbage unfolds rapidly and disappears rapidly".