Corpse Flower: Emerson Chen's journal

UC Davis, July 30 -- The corpse flower is native to Sumatra, a big island in the archipelago nation of Indonesia. It also has relatives living in other tropical rainforests extending from West Africa to other islands in Southeastern Asia.

The corpse flower dwells at the edges of rainforest near open grassland. It enjoys living under a thin, bright canopy so that it can have enough sunlight and space to grow up to 20 feet high, 15 feet across and 170 pounds in weight!

The corpse flower also tends to cluster together and so even a small habitat disturbance can threaten a colony.

Corpse flower fans began in 1878

Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari first discovered the corpse flower in Sumatra in 1878.

While cultivated specimens may not be as impressive as ones in the wild, they nonetheless attract thousands of fans all over the world. The first bloom in the United States was in New York Botanical Garden in August 1937. The plant was recorded at 8 feet, 5 inches high and weighed 100 pounds.

Since then, close to 20 flowerings have been recorded in the United States. The first plant in California bloomed in Huntington Botanical Garden Aug. 1, 1999. The specimen was 5 feet, 8.5 inches high. In Davis, Ted the Titan opened up last summer and impressed many visitors with his “distinct aroma.”

Now, Tabatha, the second corpse flower, is opening up to meet many more fans, creating perhaps yet another exciting moment of history.

If you'd like to learn more about these plants, try these sources that I used for this story.

• University of Wisconsin Department of Botany Web site: Titan Arum: The Second Blooming. "Facts about the Titan Arum"
• University of Wisconsin Department of Botany Web site: Titan Arum: The Second Blooming. "Previous Bloomings of the Titan Arum in the U.S."
• International Aroid Society Web site" "Amorphophallus Geography, Ecology and Conservation."