As someone who’s smelled more than one Titan Arum within her lifetime, Joan Leonard gets the odor nailed: “Roadkill with a little sauerkraut and dead fish blended” Leonard, program manager at Ohio State University’s Biological Sciences Greenhouse, observed the wonders of one Titan Arum blossom on May 14, 2013, and will experience another blossom this week, called on May 24.
The plant — many commonly called the corpse flower — is most renowned for its distinct and incredibly pungent odor. However, the remainder of its unbelievable lifestyle is not as well understood: Over decades what starts as an almond-size seed grows into a huge leafy plant or even an 8-foot flowering construction which can heat itself up to 100 degrees and develop more than 3 inches in 1 day. Not both — just one or the other. And you never know which way it goes. And, of course, there’s its startling shape. “Surely, the Latin name is very descriptive, since it is literally translated to mean ‘giant deformed phallus,'” says Leonard.
Woody — yes, that is this particular specimen’s moniker; it is named after Ohio State University’s beloved football coach, Woody Hayes — is a 12-year-old Titan Arum that bloomed last week. After a seed the size of an almond, Woody is now a 49-pound tuber that is 12 feet tall when in leaf stage. Woody has had one blossom. The most blossom, pictured here, reached higher.
Most people will smell the flower long until they visit it. The blossom often opens at night and provides a strong odor for approximately 12 hours afterwards. Blooms tend to begin wilting after 48 hours.
For Woody’s most recent blossom, nearly 1,500 people came to the greenhouse to experience the foul odor. “Someone compared the smell to the liquid slop at the bottom of the Dumpster,” says Leonard. “Another person told me they thought it smelled like a mouse which was regurgitated by a snake after a couple of days.”
Although corpse flower blooms are rare, they have become much more prevalent due to the germination of seeds from private collectors and institutions. The University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, as an example, currently sells seedlings for $50 to $100.
The seedlings (one is pictured here) do little to signify what’s ahead. The corpse flower goes via various dormancy and leaf cycles throughout its lifetime, wilting down to its root each time. After each period of dormancy and regeneration, the leaf and underground potato-like tuber grow considerably. Sometimes (and seldom) the plant will undergo a gorgeous bloom cycle.
Here, Maudine — Ohio State’s next slated Titan Arum blossom — displays the plant’s appearing bud stage. Although Titan Arum is often known as the largest flower in the world, it is really a group of flowers, called an inflorescence.
The stalk in the middle of the flower, called the spadix, has thousands of female and male flowers at its base. After the plant opens, the female flowers open. They die, and pollen opens and create. This procedure helps prevent self-pollination.
Note:Maudine is named after Ohio State’s 1926 homecoming queen that was a cow.
The spadix component of this plant is what generates the oh-so-distinct odor. In fact, the plant itself really heats up — generally to around 98 degrees Fahrenheit — to help dissipate the odor. Combined with the blossom’s unusual color (“It looks a lot like rotten liver,” states Paul Licht, director of the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. “It is very flesh-like.”) , the corpse flower really imitates its namesake.
But why?
Based on Licht, wild corpse flower plants have been found only in Sumatra, an island in western Indonesia. Not only do they blossom seldom, but they have to be at least 10 years old until they do. Sumatra’s tropical climate doesn’t have seasons, so the flower can bloom at any time of year. The likelihood of it being near another blooming corpse flower is slender, so the plant uses smell and colour to attract carrion insects to pollinate it.
After it flowers the flower quickly collapses and rots. When it’s been brilliant red fruits — pictured here begin to grow at the peak of the stalk. Finally the plant goes back into dormancy, growing back after a few months with an even larger leaf or flower structure.
“Ninety-nine percentage of this moment, the flower isn’t blooming,” says Licht. “It is really a gorgeous, leafy plant.” After each dormancy, a single leaf emerges from the floor. At first it is impossible to tell if it’ll go into a bloom or leaf state. When it’s the latter, then the only leaf grows into a very long stalk that branches out into leaflets — shown here. The plant itself grows very quickly as much as 3 inches every day in some cases.
Despite the crazy life cycle, the smell remains the most memorable thing about this plant that is curious. “We did have a visit from someone who works at the morgue, and she confirmed that corpse flower was an apt moniker,” says Leonard.
Ready to sniff the corpse flower yourself? If you hurry you can take a whiff at the Ohio State University Biological Sciences Greenhouse. Maudine will blossom for 2 days beginning May 24, 2013.
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