Ohio State's Biological Greenhouse grows a lot of stuff. One of the plants in its collection is Titan Anum, aka "Corpse Flower," because is smells like putrid rancid meat when it blooms.
It bloomed yesterday and the greenhouse opened its doors to the public to show off this rare event.
- When it blooms, it reeks.
- It's a big deal when one of these plants bloom. It blooms around once per ten years.
- It's a huge flower - about three feet across.
- The bloom dies off within 48 hours of the bloom emerging.
More info on the plant can be found
here.
The line for the exhibit was long. When I first showed up, someone said it would take about 1.5 hours from where I was to get into the exhibit. I initially considered leaving but then thought, "it's not raining, it's not hot or cold ... waiting in line won't kill me." I'm glad I stayed. I stood in line for maybe 45 minutes (if that) before seeing the flower. It was worth the wait.
This sign was placed in front of the flower. It gives you its stats - size, weight, age, etc.
The good people who work in the greenhouse have a sense of humor.
In person, the flower definitely looks like something out of Jurassic Park.
When I first entered the greenhouse, I didn't really smell anything. One of the curators said that most of the smell was on the "other side" of the plant. I wasn't sure what she meant. Until I got to the other side of the plant. Then I smelled it. It was definitely an unpleasant smell but it certainly wasn't as bad as I was led to believe. I expected it to be smell like a zombie kill-fest ... four days later in the middle of summer. It was more like that bad smell you get if you throw away some packaging that had chicken in it and it sits in your garbage can in the kitchen and it stinks a couple of days later. But not quite as intense.
One of the caretakers cut a hole into the flower near its base. The purple spikes are the female flowers and the yellow buds on top) are the male flowers. The female flowers open first then, a day or two later, the male flowers open up. Apparently, they don't open up at the same time in order to prevent the plants from self pollinating themselves.
Apparently, the Ohio State Biological Sciences Greenhouse has five of these plants. You can see the four other plants in these photos.
All in all, it was an interesting way to spend part of a Sunday afternoon. If you've got one of these plants blooming near you, check it out. I guarantee, you haven't
smelled seen anything like it before.
