Skunk Cabbage

skunk cabbage, any of three species of plants that grow in bogs and meadows of temperate regions. In eastern North America the skunk cabbage is Symplocarpus foetidus, which belongs to the arum family (Araceae, order Arales). In French-speaking parts of Canada it is called tabac du diable (“devil’s tobacco”) or chou puant (“stinking cabbage”). It is a fleshy, herbaceous plant with large leaves, purple-brown spathes, and a skunklike odour; a variety grows in northeastern Asia. The ill-smelling western, or yellow, skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanum), of the same family, having a large yellow spathe, is found from California to Alaska and eastward to Montana. Another skunk cabbage (Veratrum californicum) is the poisonous corn lily, or false hellebore, which grows from New Mexico and Baja California northward to Washington.