Our local orchid nursery had a corpse flower bloom last June. The plant grows from a very large bulb, which our nursery had growing in a very large pot. We regulars got to see the flower bud develop over several weeks. I saw the bud the day before it opened and estimate it was about 6 feet tall. The night it opened, I got over there the following afternoon. By that point the stench had diminished considerably and smelled to me like overcooked brussels sprouts. One of nurserymen, who lives in the house across the parking lot from the greenhouses, said the smell was so bad it woke him up during the night. By the afternoon of the next day, the flower was considerably wilted, and by the third day it was a soggy mess.
The single stemmed plant to the right of the flower bud is the vegetative form of the plant. Note the speckles on the 'stem'. It can get quite tall, as much as 20 feet. It is actually a single leaf that at the top spreads out to look like it has 3 branches. This dies back after several years of pumping energy into the bulb, and then the flower bud develops.
Now the flower itself has beautiful coloring on the outside, but the interior is even more beautiful in my estimation. The seeds develop underneath the spathe at the bottom interior of the flower.
This is not the corpse flower I saw but it gives you the idea.
?w=1200&h=900&cc=1&webp=1&q=75
Edit history
Recommendations
1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read