The Plant Press

From The Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 3, July 2022.

Corpse flower creates a stench in the research greenhouse

A Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanium) flowered in the Botany Department Research Greenhouses on the afternoon of July 6, 2022, and lasted only 24 hours before the spathe began to shrivel. The flowering was unexpected as the corm was small – no bigger than a basketball – and produced a small inflorescence, only 82 cm tall (not including its stalk).

The Department of Botany has multiple Titan arum corms of varying sizes and had flowerings in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2013, and 2021, the last of which during the Covid-19 pandemic prematurely collapsed and never fully opened. Some of these flowerings have been put on public display at the U.S. Botanic Garden.

The floral scent of rotten meat can be detected far away and has evolved to entice carrion beetles and flies in Indonesia where the species is native. The inflorescence initially has a female phase when it first opens, followed by a male phase with the anthers releasing copious pollen. Eventually, the plant will then die back and enter a resting phase as an underground corm, after which it will send up a large umbrella-like leaf.