Rare event at Thut Greenhouse, Charleston ILL: Corpse flower due to open

[bean fidhleir]

The Titan Arum is blooming!

The long wait is finally over! Following six and a half years of vegetative growth, the Titan Arum in the H.F. Thut Greenhouse at Eastern Illinois University is producing its first flower. And what a flower it will be! The Titan Arum or Amorphophallus titanum is a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The plant is also known as the carrion flower or the corpse flower because the flower’s fragrance is similar to the odor of rotting meat.

The Titan Arum was discovered by Italian botanist Oroardo Beccari, in Sumatra in 1878. It grows wild only in the tropical forests of Sumatra. The Titan Arum first flowered in cultivation at the Royal Botanic Gardens, at Kew in London in 1889. Since then, over 100 cultivated flowers have blossomed. Titan Arum flowering was first documented in the United States at the New York Botanical Gardens in 1937.

http://www.eiu.edu/~biology/news/titan_arum.htm

[cali]

1. It's not that rare.

My neighbors have one. Granted, plants are their business and their life. And yeah, it does smell that disgusting.

[chknltl]

2. Cool, I have a relative about to bloom in my yard

I have a Dragon Lilly about to bloom next to my house.
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/cgi-bin/ubb/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/28/82.html
It too is in the arum family and shares the dead-meat-like oder. The very first time I encountered the strange flower was when my step daughter stuck one in a bud-vase and placed it in my living-room while I was at work. When I came home I thought for sure SOMETHING had died somewhere between the walls of my house! My step daughter did this as a joke...well she thought it was funny at any rate. We had no idea what the lovely odd bloom was, she nicknamed it the "Purple Ick Flower". Later I learned online that it is called the Dragon Lilly. Mine will have not one but four blooms this year. The smell can be ferocious, quite noticeable many yards away actually. My blooms will be between 1-3 foot tall, I can not imagine how strong the titan arum must be because they are FAR larger.

below is a picture from the link, they truly are quite beautiful! When mine blooms open I will get photos and post them.

[cali]

3. Congratulations! Can't wait to see the pics you post. n/t

[liberal N proud]

4. Ewww, What's that smell

[LiberalEsto]

5. Dick Cheney always wears one on his lapel

to mask his own stench

[rug]

6. Just in time for Bush's departure.

[Sabriel]

7. We went to see it in Madison a few years ago.

Gads! What an odor. And the flies!

[JoDog]

8. My alma mater!

I spent many hours in the greenhouse, studying plants for my botany class, and relaxing in the adjacent garden.

No corpse flower there back then. I did once find a passed-out frat boy, though.

[baldguy]

9. Karl Rove is going to testify under oath?

[rucky]

10. I saw the one they had at the Huntington Gardens (CA) a few years ago.

Stinky.