skunk cabbage

American  

noun

1. a low, fetid, broad-leaved North American plant, Symplocarpus foetidus, of the arum family, having a brownish-purple and green mottled spathe surrounding a stout spadix, growing in moist ground.

2. a related plant, Lysichiton americanum, of western North America, having a cluster of green leaves and a spike of flowers surrounded by a yellow spathe.

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skunk cabbage British  

noun

1. a low-growing fetid aroid swamp plant, Symplocarpus foetidus of E North America, having broad leaves and minute flowers enclosed in a mottled greenish or purple spathe

2. a similar aroid plant, Lysichitum americanum, of the W coast of North America and N Asia

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Etymology

Origin of skunk cabbage

An Americanism dating back to 1745–55

Example Sentences

Our forest floors should be carpeted with Virginia bluebells, trillium, skunk cabbage, jewelweed, ferns, spring beauty, trout lily, columbine and more.

From Washington Post • Mar. 24, 2022

Here with dry feet can be enjoyed the juicy wetlands with one of spring’s earliest delights: the first sign of swamp lantern, the skunk cabbage that provides an early feast for pollinators.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 25, 2022

In 1954, after foraging in the woods around the Stony Point artists’ colony in upstate New York, Cage began to feel unwell after eating poisonous hellebore, which he had mistaken for the similar skunk cabbage.

From The Guardian • Aug. 19, 2020

In the spring, skunk cabbage was coming up, Jack-in-the-pulpit.

From The Wall Street Journal • Aug. 17, 2018

You’d think something named a skunk cabbage would be ugly and stinky, and Daddy said they sort of were, but they were interesting, too.

From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen