Symplocarpus foetidus (Eastern skunk cabbage)

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Symplocarpus foetidus (L.) Salisb. ex W.P.C. Barton

Eastern skunk cabbage, clumpfoot cabbage, foetid pothos, meadow cabbage, polecat weed, skunk cabbage, swamp cabbage

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Liliopsida	Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family
Subclass	Alismatidae	Aquatic and marshy plants
Order	Alismatales	Herbaceous flowering plants found in marshy habitats
Family	Araceae	Arum family, with plants whose flower is enclosed in a spathe
Genus	Symplocarpus	From Greek symplokos, “connected,” and karpos, “fruit,” referring to the fruit cluster of the species
Species	foetidus	From Greek foetidus, “foul smelling”

About plant names...

Skunk cabbage is native to eastern North America, northeastern Asia, eastern Siberia, northeastern China, Korea, and Japan. It is named for the disagreeable odor that results when the leaves are torn, an odor it uses to attract its pollinators.

Identification: Found in swamps and wetlands, skunk cabbage can reach 3' (91 cm) high and 8' (2.4 m) across at its peak. Early plants have hood-like leaves 4-6" (10-15 cm) high; some leaves are maroon, sometimes mottled with yellow. This hood is a "spathe," a modified leaf that protects the flowerhead. The flowers remain enclosed in the spathe, so you have to peek inside to see them. Later in the spring, large, oval leaves, up to 3-4' (91-121 cm) long, grow up from a single point. The leaves of these plants don't decay in the usual sense, they literally dissolve, disappearing by August.

Edibility: Poisonous Skull & Crossbones You probably weren't seriously considering eating skunk cabbage, but if you were, don't—it contains calcium oxalate, which causes a strong inflammatory reaction in people. Bears tolerate it, but they put up with bee stings too. From Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History:

In skunk cabbage [calcium oxalate crystals] take two forms: raphides, which occur in bundles of parallel, needlelike crystals, and druses, which are conglomerates of several crystals fused around a nucleus and shaped like an irregular, spiky ball. If skunk cabbage is eaten, the calcium oxalate causes a severe burning sensation in the mouth, throat, and esophagus and can result in an inability to speak or even in swelling of the throat.

Online References:

The Nature Institute

The University of Wisconsin's Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium

Wikipedia

Illinois Wildflowers

Plants for a Future, a resource and information centre for edible and otherwise useful plants

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Minnesota Wildflowers

References:

Gracie, Carol, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History, Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 152-161