Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - skunk cabbage

 noun  Date: 1751 either of two North American perennial herbs of the arum family that occur in shaded wet to swampy areas and have a fetid odor suggestive of a skunk:  a. one (Symplocarpus foetidus) of eastern North America that sends up in spring a cowl-shaped brownish-purple spathe  b. one (Lysichitum americana) chiefly of the Pacific coast region that has a large yellow spathe