Skunk cabbage Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun deciduous perennial low-growing fetid swamp plant of eastern North America having minute flowers enclosed in a mottled greenish or purple cowl-shaped spathe
    foetid pothos; polecat weed; Symplocarpus foetidus.
  2. noun clump-forming deciduous perennial swamp plant of western North America similar to Symplocarpus foetidus but having a yellow spathe
    Lysichiton americanum.

WordNet


Definitions
  1. (Bot.), an American aroid herb (Symplocarpus f&oe;tidus>) having a reddish hornlike spathe in earliest spring, followed by a cluster of large cabbagelike leaves. It exhales a disagreeable odor. Also called swamp cabbage.

Webster 1913