Friday, June 12th, 2009

Raising a Stink over a Flower in Bloom

Array.alttext

Amorphophallus titanum preparing to bloom at the Huntington's botanical gardens this Wednesday. Image courtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Botanists expect a very rare, very large, and very stinky flower to bloom this week in California. We'll check in on the progress of the flowering of the Amorphophallus titanum (a.k.a. the Titan Arum and the Corpse Flower). To date, only about 50 such flowerings have been recorded in the United States. A plant can go years between blooms -- but when one does bloom, a plant can reach over 6 feet tall, and 3 or 4 feet in diameter. Dimethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide produced by the bloom gives the plant a very distictive aroma.

Guests

Kitty Connolly
Botanical Education Manager
Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens
San Marino, California

Related Links

Segment produced by:Annette Heist

$relatedimages[storys].alttext

Image: An Amorphophallus titanum in bloom at the US Botanic Garden in 2007.
US Botanic Garden image.

email list
SciFri Gifts
Support for Science Friday provided in part by the Noyce Foundation
and
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The National Science Foundation
Research Corporation for Science Advancement