skunk cabbage

English

A skunk cabbage

From skunk + cabbage, from the strong odor produced when the leaves are broken or torn.

skunk cabbage (plural skunk cabbages)

(Canada, US) Any of several leafy, foul-smelling plants, especially Symplocarpus foetidus, a low-growing plant native to the wetlands of eastern North America, but also denoting Lysichiton americanus and Lysichiton camtschatcense.
- 1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin, published 1994, page 297:
  It was May before the skunk cabbage began to push up through the ooze of the swamps, before the rhubarb reddened to the back corner of the garden and the spring peepers finally emerged and began abrading the edges of the night with their lovesick vibrato.

any of several leafy, foul-smelling plants