The Maynard W. Quimby Medicinal Plant Garden in Mississippi houses over 1,000 medicinal plants from around the world. But the star of their collection would have to be the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanium) when it flowers.
This rare and mysterious “corpse flower” plant takes five or more years to send up a bloom, but when it does, watch out. The Alice in Wonderland-esque flower rises some 10 feet – such a spectacular sight that the giant bloom (which only lasts 24-36 hours before it collapses) almost always grabs headlines at botanical gardens.
Some corpse flowers only bloom once every few decades, and a mature plant can weigh 200 pounds (165 of those pounds can be accounted for in the swollen underground storage stem tuber).
There’s that. And then there’s the putrid, pungent odor the plant produces during its bloom that is similar to the smell of a decaying corpse.
Science explains it this way: The smell, color and even temperature of corpse flowers are meant to attract pollinators and help ensure the continuation of the species. Dung beetles, flesh flies and other carnivorous insects that typically eat dead flesh are the primary pollinators of this type of flower. The smell and the dark burgundy color of the corpse flower are meant to imitate a dead animal to attract these insects.
Corpse flowers are also able to warm up to 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius) to further fool insects. The insects think the flower may be food, fly inside, realize there is nothing to eat, and fly off with pollen on their legs.
This process ensures the ongoing pollination of the species. Once the flower has bloomed and pollination is complete, the flower collapses.
The corpse flower is actually a stalk composed of many small flowers — what is called an inflorescence. A mixture of tiny male and female flowers grow at the base of the spadix, the central phallus-like structure, which is surrounded by the spathe, a pleated skirt-like covering that is bright green on the outside and deep maroon inside when opened.
Thousands of these little male and female flowers exude oils, while the center collects heat. The heat causes the oils to create the rotting smell that attracts the beetles that pollinate the flower.
If pollinated, the spadix grows into a large club-like head of orange-red seeds.
Because the flower stays open and emits its odor for such a brief time, it can be quite an exciting event for scientists and botany enthusiasts. These bloomings garner media coverage and large crowds of visitors.
For example, a 2014 blooming at the Denver Botanic Gardens was watched from all-around the world due to a live feed posted on the garden’s website.
In August 2016, some 20,000 people lined up to see a blooming corpse flower at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Soon, botanical gardens may be the only place to observe a blooming titan arum. The corpse flower is classified as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Plants.
First discovered in Sumatra in 1878 by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari, the corpse flower plant grows in the wild only in tropical regions of Asia. However, it’s natural habitat is quickly disappearing due to deforestation to make room for the agricultural harvesting of oil palm trees.
Research is being carried out to see if a protein from the titan arum could be used to create a treatment for African sleeping sickness, which kills thousands of people each year in sub-Saharan Africa.
