The corpse flower at Kew Gardens on 18 June
Sebstian Kettley/RBG Kew
This stunning but stinky bloom of a corpse flower unfurled on 18 June at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, but it will only be around briefly – they tend to last for just 24 to 36 hours.
The corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum), also called the titan arum, is so named because its stench is like that of rotting flesh. This odour can emanate from it so powerfully that it travels for hundreds of metres. The smell is tailored to attract unusual pollinators like flesh flies and carrion beetles to the short-lived bloom, and must be strong enough to do its job in the short time the plant flowers, because it might not do so again for many years.
Technically, the bloom, which can reach 3 metres high, isn’t a single flower, but many. The inner flower spike, or spadix, looks like a yellow obelisk as it emerges from a pleated purple collar called the spathe. An inflorescence, or cluster, of flowers lies in a protected zone between the spathe and spadix.
If you happen to see – and smell – one, the odour might not be what you expect. It can vary across the short life of the bloom and aside from producing the whiff of rotting meat, it could smell like the equally delightful excrement or warm trash.
The rare plants are endemic to the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, but many botanical gardens around the world cultivate them, both for their beauty and for the crowds they draw when they flower. The first time one is known to have flowered outside Sumatra was at Kew in 1889.
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