In a nondescript greenhouse at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, the Corpse Flower bloomed with authority for a limited audience this morning. Native to Indonesia, the flower takes 15 years to mature, and remains in bloom for only 24 hours, an imposing window for botanical specialists who work as part of a global initiative to save the rare species from extinction. It’s likely years before another bloom event from this particular plant.
Amorphophallus titanum is known as the Corpse Flower for its memorable mechanism to attract carrion-eating beetles and flies for pollination. Generating an odor primarily composed of sulfur compounds like dimethyl trisulfide, the tropical flower simulates a dead carcass to illude insects into visiting and fertilizing the plant.
Megan Kennedy 