skunk cabbage

skunk cabbage
    n 1: deciduous perennial low-growing fetid swamp plant of
         eastern North America having minute flowers enclosed in a
         mottled greenish or purple cowl-shaped spathe [syn: {skunk
         cabbage}, {polecat weed}, {foetid pothos}, {Symplocarpus
         foetidus}]
    2: clump-forming deciduous perennial swamp plant of western
       North America similar to Symplocarpus foetidus but having a
       yellow spathe [syn: {skunk cabbage}, {Lysichiton americanum}]
    

Skunk \Skunk\, n. [Contr. from the Abenaki (American Indian)
   seganku.] (Zool.)
   Any one of several species of American musteline carnivores
   of the genus {Mephitis} and allied genera. They have two
   glands near the anus, secreting an extremely fetid liquid,
   which the animal ejects at pleasure as a means of defense.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: The common species of the Eastern United States
         ({Mephitis mephitica}) is black with more or less white
         on the body and tail. The spotted skunk ({Spilogale
         putorius}), native of the Southwestern United States
         and Mexico, is smaller than the common skunk, and is
         variously marked with black and white.
         [1913 Webster]

   {Skunk bird}, {Skunk blackbird} (Zool.), the bobolink; -- so
      called because the male, in the breeding season, is black
      and white, like a skunk.

   {Skunk cabbage} (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}.

   {Skunk porpoise}. (Zool.) See under {Porpoise}.
      [1913 Webster]