An Amorphophallus titanum or titan arum, commonly known as the corpse flower, has bloomed at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra for the first time.
The 15-year-old plant started unfurling its 135 centimetre-tall flower spike on Saturday afternoon, emanating a putrid stench described by some as smelling like “dead rat”.
The bloom is expected to start collapsing by Monday afternoon and will gradually return to a dormant state as an underground corm.
Some interesting tidbits from one of the staff.
The actual flowers are hidden down in the base of the opening and it has both male and female flowers but cannot self pollinate.
They didn’t want to pollinate this one as they were worried the plant was not strong enough. But they will keep pollen from the male flowers to give to other gardens.
They had a bunch of Australian native relatives of this plant there too. They have a similar life cycle but are much smaller.
Rather fascinating plants. I can only wonder what makes them all want to flower at a similar time after years of dormancy.