skunk cabbage

Definitions

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.

Canada, US, countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

CEFR level