Rare giant ‘corpse flower’ blooms at Rollins College
It smells like something died in Rollins College, although no one is racing to open a window as elation permeates through the school greenhouse over the blossoming corpse flower — an event not often seen ... or smelled.
The Amorphophallus titanum, also known as a corpse flower, is blossoming over at Rollins College, which is a stage in its life the plant undergoes during unpredictable spans of time from a few years to over a decade, according to the U.S. Botanic Garden.
Rollins’ corpse plant, affectionally named “Adsila,” began blooming at midnight Monday, filling the greenhouse with a pungent, deathlike smell, said Rollins greenhouse manager Alan Chryst.
“It smells like Florida roadkill in the middle of summer after having been left there for a few days,” Chryst said.
The name corpse flower stems from the putrid smell it puts off in bloom, which is thought to lure in corpse-attracted pollinators, such as carrion beetles and flies. The plant’s blossom depends on how much energy it is able to store in its “corm” and requires special conditions, including warm day and night temperatures and high humidity, making botanic gardens — such as the Rollins College greenhouse — well suited. Corpse plants can be impressively big, being 7-feet tall and over 8-feet in diameter.
The plant will be in good company, as a second corpse plant in the greenhouse, “Racine,” will bloom either Tuesday or Wednesday. The second bloom coordination with the first is pure coincidence and rare timing, Chryst said.
Chyst acquired both plants in 2004 through a plant trade with the Greenhouse Curators of North America. He had extra Cacao trees and traded them for young versions of the fleshy-smelling plant.
“I knew I would never see one in person unless I had one,” Chryst said. “The blooms are sporadic and quite fleeting, only fully open between midnight and 6 a.m.”
Chryst has seen the rare event now six times.
Adsila first bloomed in 2015. Chryst and a team successfully pollinated Adsila and have been able to create a dozen new plants — which is important since there are only 1,000 corpse plants left in its native island of Sumatra; part of Indonesia. Chryst isn’t expecting the new plants to bloom for another five to seven years.
In 2016, Racine had its first bloom and should do so again today or Wednesday.
Chryst said the greenhouse team can predict roughly when the blooms will happen by weighing the corm. Once its about 40 pounds, the corm has enough energy to bloom and put off its powerful rancid smell. After the bloom, the corm weighs about 7 pounds, Chryst said.
Last week, a corpse plant blossomed in Grand Valley State University and was livestreamed online. The university posted a timelapse video of the plant’s blossomed experience.
Rollins flowers are not available for public visitation due to some construction in a nearby parking lot and finals week in progress for students.