One of the world's largest and rarest flowering structures, the corpse flower is a pungent
plant that blooms rarely and only for a short time.
While it is in bloom, the flower emits a strong odor similar to rotting meat or, aptly, a
decaying corpse.
The smell, color and even temperature of corpse flowers are meant to attract pollinators and
help ensure the continuation of the species.
Dung beetles, flesh flies and other carnivorous insects are the primary pollinators of this
type of flower.
These insects typically eat dead flesh.
The smell and the dark burgundy color of the corpse flower are meant to imitate a dead
animal to attract these insects.
These are also able to warm up to 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius) to further trick
the insects.
The insects think the flower may be food, fly inside, realize there is nothing to eat,
and fly off with pollen on their legs.
This process ensures the ongoing pollination of the species.
Once the flower has bloomed and pollination is complete, the flower collapses.
The plant itself grows to around 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 meters).
The plants typically can grow to a massive 8 feet (2.4 m) tall and the leaves can be
as big as 13 feet (4 m) wide.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the tallest bloom was a corpse flower that
measured 10 feet 2.25 inches (3.1 m) tall.
The corpse plant is also known as the titan arum.
David Attenborough first used the name titan arum in the BBC series "The Private Lives
of Plants" because he thought viewers might be offended by the plant's Latin name, Amorphophallus
titanum.
Corpse flowers can take up to seven years to bloom; some corpse flowers only bloom once
every few decades.
The plant's energy is stored in the corm – a swollen stem base typically weighing around
100 lbs. (45 kilograms).
During the non-flowering years, a single leaf, the size of a small tree, shoots up from the
corm.
This leaf branches out into three sections with each of these sprouting more leaflets.
After many years, the plant finally gathers enough energy to bloom, and once it does,
it can only hold the bloom for 24 to 36 hours before it collapses.
Because the flower stays open and emits its odor for just a few days, it can be quite
an exciting event for scientists and botany enthusiasts.
These bloomings garner media coverage and large crowds of visitors.
In August 2016, some 20,000 people lined up to see a blooming corpse flower at the Chicago
Botanic Garden.
Once the blooming begins, it occurs in two stages on consecutive nights: essentially
a "female" stage and a "male" stage.
The female flowers form a ring at the bottom of the spadix (inner tube structure), and
the male flowers form a ring around the spadix just above the female flowers.
During the first stage, carrion beetles drawn by the stench of death and human-like body
temperatures, creep inside the vase-like structure and unknowingly deposit pollen on the receptive
female flowers.
During the second stage, the structure begins to collapse, the "fragrance" fades and the
insects begin to head out.
The corpse flower was first discovered in Sumatra in 1878 by Italian botanist Odoardo
Beccari, as the plant grows in the wild only in tropical regions of Asia.
It is classified as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN)
Red List of Threatened Plants.
The flower could become endangered, however, if the factors threatening its survival and
reproduction do not improve.
Its main threat is habitat loss and destruction.
As of now, the Sumatran rainforests are under major threat of deforestation as huge areas
are logged for timber to clear space for palm plantations.
In fact, it is estimated that around 72 percent of the original rainforests in Indonesia have
been cleared out and the scale of deforestation continues at an alarming rate.