Post 9 - Corpse Flower
5-minute read
What plant is cartoonishly phallic, wears a Dracula-shaped collar, and advertises its presence with an olfactory assault?
The Corpse Flower, of course!
The Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanium, aka Titan Arum, if you want to be botanically-correct) is one of the most bizarrely unique plants in the world – and I don’t use that phrase lightly. There are six unusual characteristics of this strange plant that make it stand out from the crowd.
Not only does it (1) look like something that arrived on this planet by some twisted joke of panspermia, but it (2) smells like someone left a full catering-tray of Chicken Vindaloo on top of the fridge for two weeks. Or like a rotting corpse. Smell-O-Vision has yet to be perfected, so you get to choose whatever helps you imagine the smell better.
People have asked me over the years if it “really” smells like rotting flesh. The short answer is yes, but honestly, it’s not so strong that you’re gagging and tearing up, even standing right next to it. It does hit you, though, right when you walk in the door of the Conservatory - it’s obvious and inescapable, but not overpowering.
Besides looking and smelling funny, it is also one of the (3) rarest plants on the planet. If that wasn’t enough – unlike almost all of its peers – it only (4) blooms about once or twice a decade. And this sucker is (5) HUGE - it can grow up to 12 feet tall in its natural habitat! Finally, and again unlike most other plants, through the process of thermogenesis, it raises its (6) “body temperature” to human levels (almost 100 degrees F) when it blooms (in order to help propagate the odor and attract pollinators like dung beetles and flies).
I mean, come on – you couldn’t make this stuff up!
For the first time ever at any botanical institution in North America, in August of 2017 the US Botanic Garden Conservatory (on the DC Mall) had - not just one - but three corpse flowers blooming AT ONCE!
There was no way I was going to miss this quite-possibly-once-in-a-lifetime event (since who knows where I’d be the next time they bloomed?), so I made my way downtown on a “school night” (August 22nd) to experience the smell and gawk at the gangling giant of the plant kingdom. The Conservatory, which normally closes at 17:00, was open late all week for this special event, with staff standing by to give presentations and answer questions. It was a memorable evening, and well worth the effort of heading into town on a week night.
There are many articles and other resources online about the corpse flower but among the best, and the source of most of my information, is this page from the USBG website:
https://www.usbg.gov/three-corpse-flowers-bloomed-usbg-2017
There is a lot of information on that page, including a short video on the chemicals involved in making the corpse flower’s distinctive odor, and a 4-hour video of one of the plants blooming in real time. (If you want to watch a 4-hour video, knock yourself out – otherwise, use the slider and scroll through the bloom in a few seconds like I did). They should have asked me to do a timelapse! I would have been glad to volunteer…. : -)
This story rounds out my “plant triptych”, so I’ll be moving on to other topics next. To give you a bit of a preview, here’s what I have lined up:
Coming up next, on March 28th, I have a ghost story for you that takes place at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
After that, on April 4th, if you really behave, and eat every last bite of broccoli on your plate, I’ll tell you about the time I was abducted by aliens….
The photos I took on the evening of Aug 22nd, 2017 are below, with commentary.
If you’d like to view these photos as a slideshow without commentary, they are in the Gallery for this post located HERE.
The scene as I entered the Conservatory - crowds of people vying for “selfie positions” next to the stars of the show
The three stars of the show! The largest bloom (right side back) grew to 99.5 inches (8.3 feet, 2.5 meters); the second-largest (left) grew to 91.5 inches (7.6 feet, 2.3 meters); and the shortest (right front) peaked at 50 inches (4.2 feet, 1.3 meters). Note that the bloom on the left had already peaked and fallen over by the time I got there. Also, the cape-like spadix had been partially removed from that plant. The square holes in the bases of the two front plants were cut to provide visibility into the interiors. Technically, a corpse flower is an inflorescence, or cluster of flowers, rather than a single flower, as you’ll be able to see below.
Side view of the three plants - can you say “Little Shop of Horrors”?
The family portrait: Gomez and Morticia Addams
Closer side view, showing the relative size of the tallest vs the shortest flowers
Closeup of the fallen soldier - Uncle Fester (?)
Detail of the spadix of the fallen flower
Above - two views of the interior inflorescence (of two different plants) showing the clusters of flowers and seeds.
One article I read said the plant was shaped like a baguette….I suppose that’s ONE way of looking at it…. ; -)
A wider shot from behind the two main plants, giving a perspective of just how they towered over the audience
At some point, I had pretty much shot the corpse flowers from every angle possible, so I started to wander through the various rooms (and climates) of the Conservatory. If the two main plants were Gomez and Morticia - and the fallen comrade was Uncle Fester (?) - then this prickly specimen has to be Cousin It…
The Conservatory is such an awesome place, people couldn’t help gawk open-mouthed at the resplendent scenery.…
If I was rich, this would be my living room. Except for the heat and humidity in this room - I couldn’t deal with that on a regular basis - but it’s so amazing to walk into a steaming rain forest, no matter what the weather is like outside.
Unless this is the first of my blog posts you’re reading, you know I have a penchant for ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) shots. For a colorful scene like this, it was inevitable that I had to shake my camera just a bit…. : -) I’ll do a full post soon on ICM so you can get a feel for what’s possible with a little shimmy and shake.
It was a warm, sultry evening - with a lightning storm brewing off to the right of this vantage point - so I lingered to soak up some DC “atmosphere” on my way back to where I’d parked my car. Despite the hour, and threatening weather, people were still out and about enjoying the night.
The Capitol building is such a stunning, classic structure that it lends itself well to a B&W rendition, especially at night
LEFT: Your Brain……RIGHT: Your Brain After Seeing (and Smelling) Three Corpse Flowers!
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