July 4th and the corpse plant are NOT related – it just happens to be the 4th when I am writing this long-promised blog entry!
So here it is: Amorphophallus Titanum, otherwise known as the stinky plant since when it blossoms, it smells like rotting flesh.
This is the plant.
This plant last bloomed at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena in 2002! I was so sorry I missed it, so upon my return from Colorado and reading in the paper that it was blooming again, seven years later, I jumped in the car and drove the 100+- miles to Pasadena.
I was one day late – it had bloomed the previous day, and it didn’t smell like rotting flesh anymore, but like old stinky socks.
Look at the size of this plant!
You can judge the size by the people behind the plant. It’s almost 7 feet tall! When it bloomed the day before, it looked like the plant on the poster above – and the bloom had a four to five foot diameter! Just incredible.
Growth Chart
This chart shows that when the blossom began to grow on May 28th, it was about 2 feet five inches. By June 17th, when bloom began in the late afternoon, it measured almost seven feet! When I was there on June 18, the bloom had already begun to shrink.
Detail
Look at the beautiful detail on this plant. It was really remarkable and well worth the drive. Who knows when it will bloom again? As you can tell, it’s rare.
I was able to use photos of this plant on my collage Blue Moon.
Blue Moon
To see other photo collages, you can visit the gallery.
