Corpse Flower: Stinky but not carnivorous

The corpse flower and other stinky aroids

Editor's note: Barry Rice, a botanist based at UC Davis, is an invasive species specialist with the Nature Conservancy. This piece was adapted from the Carnivous Plant FAQ he writes for the International Carnivorous Plant Society.

By Barry Rice

Repeat after me, "These are not carnivorous plants."

What is this fascination that people have about stinking plants? It must be indicative of something fatally flawed about our species. I just cannot figure it out.

Anyway, in the Arum family (Araceae) a number of plant genera have big flowers that mimic dead, rotting, stinking flesh. They do this so that insects of the right sort will buzz in from far and wide in search of smelly things to crawl around on. The insects are hoping to find food for themselves and their larvae. While they crawl around on the flower, they pollinate it with pollen they picked up on trips to previously visited smelly flowers.

The plant from this group that I am most frequently asked about is, of course, Amorphophallus titanum. For a few months of the year this plant spends its time underground as a dormant bulb. (Imagine something that looks like a grocery-store water chestnut, but that is the size of a preschooler.) Most years, it produces a huge, squamous stalk topped by a parasol-shaped feathery grouping of leaves -- very neat. (Actually, the entire stalk and leafy ensemble is but a single leaf.)

Every now and then, the plant forgoes the leaf, and in its place makes a single flower. This flower has a huge cowl (called a spathe) and a columnar pillar (called a spadix) that pokes out of the cowl that extends skyward for about 7-10 feet).

Even more spectacular than the flower's appearance is the smell. A common English name for this plant is "corpse flower."

The two photographs to the right are of Amorphophallus rivieri, a mere dwarf cousin of the corpse flower. Even though its flower is only a few feet tall, the smell is solidly rank. I had to get close to Amorphophallus rivieri to take these photographs, and my hair smelled bad for hours.

I have had the pleasure of being in a greenhouse with a flowering Amorphophallus titanum only one spring. It was astonishing. Standing by the plant, its smell was only horrible. Then, suddenly, it would pump out a snootful of stink, and you'd have to swallow hard.

Another commonly encountered stinky aroid is called Sauromatum, sometimes sold as the Voodoo lily. While just a foot or so tall, it has all the attributes of its more colossal relatives. It makes for a wonderful gag gift (pun intended). I gave a few corms to my mum one year. Several months later it flowered, and I received a very angry call from her. Heh, heh, heh.

One last fact about this plant -- it is not the world's largest flower. A botanist will tell you that the Amorphophallus "flower" actually consists of many tiny flowers fused together. (Daisies are similarly fused.) The largest single flower is called Rafflesia arnoldii, but the tale of that plant must wait for another day.