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A Laidback Gardener report published Oct. 12, 2026, describes thermogenesis: heat production in plants including skunk cabbage, lotus and titan arum. The warmth can help release floral scents, attract and shelter insect pollinators, and protect reproductive structures in cold conditions. The report says thermogenesis has been documented in 14 plant families, while its distribution and evolutionary role remain subjects of continuing research.
Laidback Gardener published a report on Oct. 12, 2026, about plants that generate their own heat, a process known as thermogenesis. The article, reproduced with permission from the Friends of the Montréal Botanical Garden, describes how warmth in plants such as skunk cabbage, lotus and titan arum can help attract and support pollinators, and may protect flowers in cold conditions.
The report says thermogenesis has been documented in 14 plant families, with more than 100 known thermogenic species in the arum family, Araceae. In these plants, heat is produced in reproductive structures. The article explains that warmth can help disperse fragrances, including the putrid odours some species use to attract insects. It may also provide visiting insects with a warmer place to remain active or, in some cases, a site for laying eggs.
Skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, illustrates how heat can matter in a cold climate. The report says its emerging reproductive structure can become nearly 30 °C warmer than the surrounding air in late winter, enough to melt snow nearby. Its reddish-brown spathe surrounds the inflorescence, helping retain warmth as the plant flowers early. Heat can protect reproductive development from freezing and help carry the plant’s strong odour to pollinators emerging from winter dormancy.
The report also describes heat-producing aquatic flowers, including giant water lily and sacred lotus. Their flowers warm at night as they prepare to open, releasing scent that attracts beetles. In the account, insects remain inside as petals close, then receive pollen before the flower reopens. Titan arum uses heat generated from energy stored in its large tuber to help carry its carrion-like scent upward. Cycads provide another example: the article says nearly 400 tropical and subtropical species are known, almost all thermogenic, and that their cones emit infrared radiation that may help attract insects.
How Warmth Shapes Pollination
Thermogenesis offers plants a way to influence the conditions around their flowers rather than relying only on colour or scent. According to the report, heat can help spread floral odours, draw insects to reproductive structures and give them a thermal resource while they visit. In cold environments, it can also help a plant flower when many other species have not yet begun, widening the period in which pollination can occur.
The examples show that plant heat has more than one possible function. Skunk cabbage’s warmth is associated with early flowering and protection from freezing; in lotus and water lilies, heat is part of a sequence that attracts and retains beetles and supports pollen transfer. In tropical titan arum, warmth is linked to the release of an odour that attracts carrion-feeding insects. These are different adaptations, not evidence that all heat-producing plants work in the same way.
The report says thermogenesis is energetically demanding. Understanding how plants generate heat and how insects respond can help researchers explain specific plant-pollinator relationships and the evolution of similar traits in distant groups. The suggested ecological benefits are grounded in reported examples, but the article does not claim that one function accounts for every thermogenic species.
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Examples Across Plant Groups
The article was originally published in Quatre-Temps and is reproduced by Laidback Gardener with permission from the Friends of the Montréal Botanical Garden. Its focus is the biology of heat-producing plants, rather than a new experiment or a single newly discovered species. The report places the examples within a broader pattern: thermogenesis occurs among unrelated plant families and is described as an example of convergent evolution, in which similar traits arise in different lineages.
For skunk cabbage, the report notes that the plant grows in peaty or very wet woodlands, often near streams. It also says a few specimens can be seen in the Montréal Botanical Garden’s First Nations Garden. Its late-winter flowering contrasts with the tropical examples, where heat is described mainly in relation to scent and insect visitors, not cold protection.
The report says researchers have proposed that heat production may occur more broadly across the plant kingdom, though it is not equally pronounced in all plants. It also says thermogenesis in lotus and skunk cabbage may have helped those plants reproduce in colder or less favourable regions. Those ideas are presented as research proposals, not settled findings that apply to every species.
“This process, called thermogenesis, is an adaptation found in several plant species.”
— Laidback Gardener, in the report reproduced with permission from the Friends of the Montréal Botanical Garden
Questions Still Open in Plant Heat
The report does not identify a new study, research team or publication behind its discussion of recent proposals, and it provides no methods or evidence details for readers to evaluate those claims. The suggested idea that thermogenesis may be common across the plant kingdom remains a proposal in the source material; the extent and significance of less pronounced heat production are not specified.
It is also unclear from the article how many species have been assessed in each plant family, how the tally of 14 families may change, or how much each proposed pollination benefit contributes to reproductive success. The report says the list of thermogenic species continues to grow, but it does not name a newly added species or give a timeline for further findings.
Further Research on Plant Heat
The report points to an ongoing research area rather than a scheduled next event. Researchers are continuing to document thermogenic species and examine how heat affects floral scent, pollinator behaviour and reproduction. The article gives no date for a forthcoming study or announcement, so no specific next milestone is confirmed.
For now, the reported examples show distinct ways plants can use heat: early flowering in skunk cabbage, beetle attraction and pollen transfer in aquatic plants, odour dispersal in titan arum, and possible thermal signalling in cycads. Further species-level research will be needed to establish how widely these mechanisms occur and which benefits apply in each case.
Key Questions
What is thermogenesis in plants?
Thermogenesis is the production of heat by a plant. The report describes it mainly in reproductive structures such as flowers, inflorescences and cycad cones.
Why do some flowers produce heat?
According to the report, warmth can help disperse scents that attract pollinators, provide insects with a warmer place to remain active, and protect reproductive structures from cold in some species. The role differs between plants.
How warm can skunk cabbage become?
The report says a skunk cabbage inflorescence can reach nearly 30 °C above the surrounding air temperature in late winter. It says this warmth can melt nearby snow.
Which other plants are described as heat-producing?
The report names giant water lily, sacred lotus, titan arum and cycads, as well as skunk cabbage. It says thermogenesis has been documented in 14 plant families.
Is heat production common to all plants?
The report says researchers have proposed that thermogenesis may be common across the plant kingdom, but it stresses that heat production is not equally pronounced in all plants. The proposal is not presented as a settled finding.
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