I often photograph flowers. They’re pretty, they’re colorful, and they usually smell nice. But, every once in a while you run into one that refuses to conform. So, when I heard on the news last week about a big old plant that smells like, well, it’s often called the “corpse flower” so you can probably guess what it smells like, I just had to see it.
The plant is the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum for you Latin linguists out there). It made the news because it often goes for many years without blooming and, when it finally decides to flower, it only lasts for a day or two. A titan arum recently bloomed in Washington DC and attracted a crowd of over 100,000 eager visitors. Fortunately, one blooming at the D.C. Smith Greenhouse right here in Madison drew a much smaller crowd and I was able to walk right in for a look … and a smell.
Dennis, the name of the Madison plant on display last week, is rather young and is relatively small, only about 5 feet tall. Some of these plants get as tall as 10 feet. I was surprised that the greenhouse didn’t smell very bad. To fully enjoy its aroma I had to put my nose right down into the flower. Then it was like a pound of raw hamburger that you forgot to put into the refrigerator before you took your 2-week vacation. Imagine coming home to that!
Despite the smell, I thought the plant was actually quite pretty.
