Symplocarpus foetidus
species of plant
Symplocarpus foetidus, commonly known as skunk cabbage or eastern skunk cabbage (also swamp cabbage, clumpfoot cabbage, or meadow cabbage, foetid pothos or polecat weed), is a low-growing plant that grows in wetlands and moist hill slopes of eastern North America. Bruised leaves present an odor reminiscent of skunk.
Symplocarpus combines the Greek word symploce, meaning "connection" and carpos, meaning "fruit", to indicate that the plant has a compound fruit.
Linnaeus gave the plant its species name of foetidus, Latin for "bad-smelling". The plant produces a strong odor, which is repulsive to many but sometimes described as smelling like "fresh cabbage with a slight suggestion of mustard". The odor increases in intensity over time, as the plant matures, likely due to increased ripeness in the plant's stamens.
Description
The plant grows from a thick rhizome, typically measuring 30 cm (0.98 ft). It has leaves that are large, each 40–55 cm (16–22 in) long and 30–40 cm (12–16 in) wide. Blooming early in the spring, just its blossoms can be seen above the mud.
The plant is generally pulled back into the earth as it develops every year.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Symplocarpus foetidus” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Symplocarpus, foetidus and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1195489. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Symplocarpus foetidus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.