Any of three species of plants that grow in temperate bogs and meadows, emitting unpleasant odours as they grow.
The eastern North American skunk cabbage ( Symplocarpus foetidus , of the arum family ) has large fleshy leaves, purple-brown spathes, and a skunklike odour. The western, or yellow, skunk cabbage ( Lysichiton americanum ), also an arum, bears a large yellow spathe and is found from California to Alaska and eastward to Montana. The third species, Veratrum californicum , is the poisonous corn lily, or false hellebore , of the lily family , which grows from New Mexico and Baja California northward to Washington State.