skunk cabbage
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.
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.
Origin of skunk cabbage
1Words Nearby skunk cabbage
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use skunk cabbage in a sentence
That’s where friends and I tramped across streams and down overgrown trails, where the sweet smell of freshly cut grass gave way to the dankness of soil and skunk cabbage.
From the smooth sumac they reap a harvest in midsummer, and in March they get a good grist of pollen from the skunk-cabbage.
A Year in the Fields | John BurroughsOff in the ferns there beat a warning tattoo—the loud whir of the snake's tail against a skunk-cabbage leaf.
Roof and Meadow | Dallas Lore Sharp“I can pull out any skunk cabbage with my teeth,” said Deer.
Myths and Legends of British North America | Katharine Berry JudsonThe skunk cabbage raises his hooded head first in sheltered hollows.
The Garden, You, and I | Mabel Osgood Wright
Skunk-cabbage, you call it; so quaint a flower deserves a rather better name.
Babylon, Volume 1 (of 3) | Grant Allen
British Dictionary definitions for skunk cabbage
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
a similar aroid plant, Lysichitum americanum, of the W coast of North America and N Asia
- Turkish name (1392–1913): skunkweed
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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