June 2018 ILLINOIS Chicago 3 - Corpse Flower?

We had never heard of a Corpse Flower until our recent trip on June 27. We were introduced to "Alice" at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It seems many Titan Arums have been given nicknames by their greenhouse keepers. (https://www.chicagobotanic.org/titan/about). Since then we came across three more examples of the species. Still haven't seen one actually blooming yet.

What an interesting plant! Amorphophallus titanium is its scientific name (or titan arum, for short). Per Wikipedia, it is comprised of a central spike called a spadix that is surrounded by a purple frilly, modified leaf called a spathe.

This poster diagrams parts of the plant.

This plant blooms every 7-10 years on average and only for 24 to 36 hours. When blooming, it emits a foul smelling stench of an odor, like the rotting flesh of a carcass. It's color and "fragrance" are what attracts pollinators--flies beetles, things what would normally be seen on dead and rotting corpses. Some say if you stand to the side, the odor is not bad, but standing in the "sweet spot," it's horrible.


It is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. An inflorescence is a floral structure composed of many smaller individual flowers working as one.

Another example of an inflorescence is an anthurium seen here (pix from the Hawaii Tropical Botanical website). The tiny flowers are actually on the white / yellow area surrounded by a red spathe.

On Alice, the tiny male and female flowers are at the base of the stalk surrounded by the big purple spathe. This next photo is not Alice, but an example from the Wikipedia entry about the uncovered flowers of the plant.

The bloom of this species is usually between 6 and 8 feet tall. The record is 10 feet. The plant also produces the largest leaf in the world reaching 15-20 feet high. The leaf has a tall stalk with leaflets at the top. This dies off before the plant blooms.

This plant species was first noted in the late 1800's and are found naturally in Indonesia, Java, and Sumatra. They are rarely cultivated and even more rare to actually bloom. They are endangered due to deforestation.

Chicago's Alice bloomed two days after our visit. Alice bloomed once before in 2015 in a greenhouse setting. This time she was displayed outdoors to study the difference between fresh air and a greenhouse situation. Her seeds were pollinated by scientists and eventually produced fruit--orange-red, olive-shaped berries. Some were replanted in Chicago and some given to other institutions.

Another 18-year old Corpse Flower bloomed for the first time on July 12, 2018 at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. The name of this beauty is Putricia (clever). Don't you love it! It was planted in 2000 as a seedling in a 4-½ inch pot. Today it is taller than 4-½ feet. See pre-bloom and bloom photos here: www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2018/07/rare_corpse_flower_in_full_blo.html.  Then click on the blue "39" circle. After photo 5, click "More" to see all 39 photos.

Also read about Corpse Flowers in the Ohio State University Biological Sciences Greenhouse in Columbus, Ohio. The school website says there were two titan arum that started blooming in July, but perished before bloom was complete. Not sure if that means the plant died or the bloom just failed. I wonder what a dead Corpse Flower carcass smells like!!

Here's another Corpse Flower blooming at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California on August 17, 2018. Its name is Stink. Saw this on a TV news show.

Less than two months ago, I had never heard of this plant. Now it seems they are blooming everywhere. The horror movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers comes to mind. Yikes!!!!

What an interesting plant, so I had to research further. There is a lot more than mentioned here. Google "titan arum" to find all kinds of info and photos on the topic. I even found a list of the rare blooming dates and places of this plant in Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_publicised_titan_arum_blooms_in_cultivation. I noticed that the Chicago bloom on June 27, 2018 was not listed. So now I have to figure out how to change Wiki to add this event.