Titania the corpse flower
A few days early to be perfectly paced for our lecture material, the titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum, (aka the corpse flower) is expected to bloom at the UC Botanic Gardens this week.The titan arum is one of the largest and most spectacular blooms in the world, and the specimen at the Botanic Gardens is currently over five feet tall and growing several inches per day. They have set up a webpage so you can track its progress and visit when it flowers. The picture to the left shows the last titan arum to bloom at the Botanic Gardens
Although the bloom will likely remain for about a week after it opens, the strong stench of dead flesh for which it is named is strong for only about the first 12 hrs after it fully opens. The odor helps the plant attract insects that carry its pollen to other titan arums.
This time last year: Fertilizing the Oceans and Diatom Art
Labels: Botany
posted by John Latto @ 3:02 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
the plant is really cool
people who haven't already gone up to the botanical gardens to see it should
the flower hasn't bloomed yet as of 8/2/07
dr. latto, i think i remember you talking about it last year but now it's so cool that we can actually see it
I went to see the last one that flowered there a couple of years ago and it IS worth a trip. The flower is truly surreal - it looks like something out of a bad science fiction movie. Last time I went too late to catch the corpse stench. Hmmm, maybe that was a good thing.....
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