Maybe inspired by Halloween, Mongo the resident corpse flower (aka titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum) at the Biology Greenhouse at Appalachian State University sent up a flower bud for its first bloom in early November this year. It took over a decade to grow to this stage from a fist-sized corm received as a gift from the Atlanta Botanical Garden. After teasing us for a while with a bit of stop-and-grow (probably responding to light conditions), it finally blossomed the day after Thanksgiving. Pictures and a timeline of the bloom progression are available on Mongo's website.
Mongo in all its smelly glory shortly after midnight in the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2023. It grew to a little over four feet tall.
This plant species is famous for making the largest unbranched inflorescence known and is endangered in the wild with fewer than a thousand individuals left in its native range on Sumatra. Being such a prominent record holder in the plant kingdom, it is however a flagship species for botanic gardens and cultivated around the world. As a tropical rainforest plant of sizable stature, it is not suitable as a houseplant though and its cultivation requires a greenhouse facility that can accommodate its high temperature and humidity needs. It takes a decade or longer to grow from seed to blooming plant, and once it reaches maturity it will bloom only for a few days every couple of years. Every one of these blooms attracts a crowd of admirers. An estimated 3,000 people turned out to see (and smell) this botanical marvel up close and personal at AppState. Almost everyone took pictures, but curiously I'm the only one who has uploaded any on iNaturalist. Well, I tried to make up for it by uploading nearly a dozen observations to cover this event. I hope y'all forgive my botanical nerdiness! (It also taught iNat that this plant is cultivated in this location, so any future uploads should be automatically marked not wild.)
Botanist delight - not sure what was more exciting: Mongo's bloom or seeing how many people showed up and waited in line in the freezing cold for up to an hour just to see a plant!
Great to see so many youngsters get excited about a stinky flower. Mongo had fans coming back several times. Great pictures, I'd say!
Being a family member of the Araceae, the inflorescence takes the shape of a spadix (central column) with a surrounding spathe (frilly skirt). It produces both warmth and stench to attract its pollinators (flies and carrion beetles) by mimicking the looks and smell of something dead and decomposing, hence its nickname corpse flower. Its distinctive odor is said to be the strongest in the early morning hours of the day of its bloom. Having personally witnessed the bloom and talked to our greenhouse manager, who came in just as I was leaving after midnight, Mongo was at its stinkiest around 1-2 AM after the spathe unfurled. I thought it smelled more fishy than rotting meat. The smell does linger - I felt I kept smelling it for days, possibly hanging onto my clothes or maybe just my imagination.
We did have a few interested costumers checking things out. Hidden inside the vase-like spathe at the very base of the spadix are the actual flowers, a ring of males with stamens on the top and another ring of females with carpels below.
Our greenhouse manager cut a window into the base of the spathe to open up a view inside. The female flowers are the purple-reddish pegs on the bottom and the male flowers are the yellow bumps on the top.
The plant prevents self-pollination by maturing its female flowers during the first day while oozing the pollinator-attracting stench. The male flowers will release their pollen strands a day later once the females are no longer receptive to pollination. We tried to acquire pollen but were unsuccessful. Apparently it requires high humidity to mature, and cutting a window as well as opening and closing the door as visitors came through probably prevented the conditions to be right for pollen release. We did take a few samples for microscopy.
Removing some florets to preserve in glutaraldehyde for microscopy.
Now we may have to wait for another couple of years for the next opportunity. Given the proper care, it should be even bigger and smellier than this first bloom!
Looking forward to experiencing this stinker in full bloom sometime next week. More info here: https://cas.appstate.edu/news/mongo-app-states-corpse-flower-expected-bloom-next-week
Shouldn't be too much longer now before this big stinker opens up. I know a lot of people in town are waiting with bated breath to get a sniff at it when that happens. Aren't humans weird?
More info and live stream of the coming bloom here:
https://biology.appstate.edu/facilities/biology-greenhouse/corpse-flower
'Mongo' is still teasing us, taking its time to open up that spathe and release its stink. There's a noticeable bulge around the base now though so hopefully it won't be too much longer. I know a lot of folks who are hoping to get a sniff before leaving town for Thanksgiving travels.
Getting more maroon around the edges of the spathe.
Mongo decided tonight was the night to invite everyone for a party! These pictures were taken over the span of about four hours, the first one approximately three hours after the spathe started unfurling according to the livestream.
Titan arum now with window cut into the base to see the flowers inside. The lower ones are the females and the upper ones are the males. The male flowers open the second night of the bloom to release their pollen, so they are still tightly closed. Smell was most intense in the early morning and fading throughout the day. We did see a few flies checking it out.
Fly attracted to the sweet fragrance (to a fly) of a corpse flower blooming inside the greenhouse. The observation series for the plant is here.
Revisiting the titan arum at the AppState Biology Greenhouse. The male flowers were sprayed with water in hopes of providing enough moisture for them to open. They never really did, presumably due to requiring high humidity and cutting into the plant plus opening/closing doors all the time for visitors to pass through probably dried them up too much.
Another check-in with the titan arum, noticing the spathe starting to close up again. For the full set of pictures of this plant to compare day-to-day progress, see the observation set under observation fields.
Checking in on the titan arum for the day, now with the spadix starting to lean precariously. This was the last day it was still upright.
Once the public event was over and preparations were underway for moving it back to its dormancy place, the botanist were having some fun taking samples for microscopy.
The spadix dropped over night. The camera for the timelapse was still up so hopefully once that video is publicly available we can watch it happen. The public viewing period had ended so I took the opportunity to spend some time and take a few close-ups of the floral textures and architecture. The male flowers never opened (presumably due to lack of humidity necessary for that to happen).
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Thanks for posting these photos!
Update on the titan arum bloom: It somehow managed to set fruits after all. Observation here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/202276913
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