Eeew! Domes’ corpse flower draws crowds
There’s a reason the titan arum is known as the corpse flower — it exudes a mighty stink when it blooms every seven to 10 years to ensure its survival.
The Mitchell Park Domes’ corpse flower drew creatures in multitudes on Wednesday though instead of carrion flies, it was human beings armed with cameras and smartphones.
As parents clicked pictures of kids holding their noses, some complained it didn’t smell as bad as they thought it would while others leaned close for a whiff and then immediately backed away.
A steady stream of visitors flowed through the Domes after Milwaukee County Parks officials issued an alert that the corpse flower was expected to open on Wednesday. It’s a relatively short window — corpse flowers typically bloom and stink for only 24 to 48 hours.
Almost all Domes visitors turn left after buying a ticket and visit the show dome first but on Wednesday most turned right to step in to the tropical dome where the corpse flower was on prominent display.
When asked to describe the odor, tropical dome horticulturist Mary Braunreiter said, “You know when you find a rotten, dead chipmunk in your garage? It’s nasty.”
As if on cue, the door to the tropical dome opened and Braunreiter, who was standing about 25 feet away in the entry area, said, “Wow, I just got a whiff.”
A native of Sumatra jungles, the titan arum — for horticulture nerds the full name is Amorphophallus titanum — grows an underground tuber that weighs at least 20 to 40 pounds before it flowers. Since they’re not self-pollinating, corpse flowers depend on insects for pollination.
Braunreiter noted that the flower is the color of rotting meat and so is the smell — perfect for inducing carrion flies, dung beetles and other insects to land, walk around a bit and then fly off to another titan arum in the jungle and leave behind pollen.
The Domes got its first titan arum from a tuber off a corpse flower plant at the University of Wisconsin a couple decades ago, said Braunreiter. That original plant eventually rotted and died but several tubers from the Domes’ first titan arum are still living and spend most of their time in the adjacent greenhouse because when it’s not sending out a leaf or flower, it looks rather ordinary.
The plant grows a big leaf each year which wilts and then becomes dormant. That’s repeated seven to 10 times before a flower arrives. Horticulturists never know in advance if the titan arum will flower, but two weeks ago they got excited when they noticed it was different. This is the first time any of the 10 corpse flowers at the Domes has bloomed.
A sign next to the titan arum featured the cartoon character skunk “Pepe Le Pew” — the name picked through a contest on social media by the Milwaukee County Parks Department.
Diane Lembck of Franklin stopped at the Domes to see the titan arum before going for a hike on the nearby Hank Aaron State Trail, where she hoped to see and smell much more pleasantly fragrant flowers.
“It’s a very unusual plant,” she said. “It almost doesn’t seem real.”
Jeremiah Pike and his wife, Alison, were visiting from Ottawa, Ill., for the Brewers-Cubs game at Miller Park and found out about the corpse flower while researching things to see and do in Milwaukee.
“We had some time to kill and we didn’t really want to tailgate. This is something I’ve never seen,” said Jeremiah Pike.