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Toxic to dogs. The ASPCA lists skunk cabbage as toxic to dogs. Skunk cabbage is a mouth first plant: painful rather than organ damaging, and the smell limits most encounters. Swelling that affects swallowing or breathing is the emergency sign, as with every oxalate plant in this database.
Skunk cabbage is the first plant of spring in eastern North American wetlands, melting its way up through frozen mud with a mottled maroon hood, and smelling powerfully of decay when bruised. The ASPCA lists Symplocarpus foetidus as toxic to dogs. Dogs meet it on every wet woodland walk from late winter onward, at exactly nose height, in exactly the mud they love.
The ASPCA names the toxic principle of skunk cabbage as Insoluble calcium oxalate crystals. Skunk cabbage is an aroid, a relative of the pothos and philodendron in the houseplant pages, and it uses the family defense outdoors: insoluble calcium oxalate crystals in its leaves and fleshy flower parts. Chewing drives the needle shaped crystals into the mouth and throat lining, so the injury is immediate burning, drooling and swelling where the plant was bitten. Its famous smell, released when tissue is bruised, warns most animals off before a full meal.
The clinical signs the ASPCA lists for skunk cabbage are: oral irritation, excessive drooling, vomiting and difficulty swallowing. The encounter is usually curiosity, not grazing. The plant appears before anything else is green, a dog investigates the strange hood, bites or mouths it, and the crystals answer immediately: drooling, head shaking, pawing at the mouth and a hasty retreat. Because skunk cabbage grows in colonies, the walk matters after the first bite too; a dog that has learned nothing may mouth plant after plant along a marsh boardwalk. Signs stay at the mouth in the great majority of cases, and a dog that can swallow and breathe normally has met the usual end of this plant.
Most dangerous part: The leaves and the fleshy spring flower structure, the mottled hood a dog meets nose first at ground level in wet ground in early spring.
Do not confuse this plant with false hellebore or with the lilies of wet places when you describe an exposure. Wetland plants are notoriously hard to name from a description over the phone, and a spring wetland holds plants with far worse chemistry than oxalate crystals. Photograph the plant in place, hood, leaves and setting together, and let the poison line work from evidence rather than from a guessed common name.
Call your veterinarian, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435, or the Pet Poison Helpline on (855) 764-7661 right away, even if your dog looks fine. Some poisons take hours or days to show their worst effects. Do not make your dog vomit unless a veterinarian tells you to, and keep the packaging, a photo, or a sample of what was eaten to show the clinic.
You cannot weed a marsh, so manage the dog: keep a curious dog on a shorter lead along boardwalks and stream edges while skunk cabbage is emerging, and call it away from any investigation of the hoods. At home, if your garden has a wet corner with skunk cabbage, fence it for the spring emergence season.
No planting advice applies to a wild wetland plant. For a garden pond margin, verify any candidate on the ASPCA list by scientific name before planting; Symplocarpus is a plant to admire on the walk and leave there. Whatever you plant next, check it on the toxic plants index approach: confirm the plant on the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic list under its scientific name, Symplocarpus foetidus is the name to avoid here, before it goes in the ground or on the shelf.
Yes. The ASPCA lists skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) as toxic to dogs. Its toxic principle is Insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, and the signs it lists include oral irritation, excessive drooling, vomiting and difficulty swallowing.
Call your veterinarian, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435, or the Pet Poison Helpline on (855) 764-7661 straight away. Note what part of the plant was eaten and roughly how much, keep any remaining plant material to show the clinic, and do not make your dog vomit unless a veterinarian tells you to.
The leaves and the fleshy spring flower structure, the mottled hood a dog meets nose first at ground level in wet ground in early spring.
The name describes the smell of bruised tissue, not its family. Botanically it is an aroid, kin to pothos and philodendron, and it shares their calcium oxalate crystal defense and their mouth first signs.
Offer a small drink of water, move the dog away from the patch, and phone your veterinarian or a poison service for guidance. If the mouth swells visibly, or swallowing or breathing becomes difficult, skip the phone queue and go straight to a clinic.
This page is general information drawn from the published guidance of the organizations listed under Sources below. It is not veterinary advice, and it does not replace your own veterinarian, who knows your dog. If your dog has eaten something toxic, contact your veterinarian, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435, or the Pet Poison Helpline on (855) 764-7661 straight away. A consultation fee may apply on the helplines.
Last updated: November 2026. Every verdict on this page was checked against the sources listed above. How we work: our methodology.
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