sentences:  Along with the eastern skunk cabbage ("Symplocarpus foetidus"), "T. nivale" is one of the earliest flowering spring ephemerals.Given its winter hardiness, one would expect the range of "T. nivale" to extend farther north, but curiously this is not the case.Soon after pollination the pedicel turns downward, so that by the time the fruit is mature, it is hanging below the leaves.