Caption for this image at PhytoImages, “Compound leaf showing winged rachis.” This is the plant that produces the “corpse flower.”
From Chicago Botanic Garden, https://www.chicagobotanic.org/titan/about » “The titan arum in bloom looks like a 6- to 8-foot-tall flower, but it’s actually a tall spadix (flower structure) wrapped by a spathe (a frilly modified leaf). Technically the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, the titan arum also sends up tall, umbrella-like, individual leaves that can reach 15 feet and look like small trees.
“It’s huge underground, too: leaves and flowers are powered by the largest known corm (a type of tuber) in the world. To bloom, the arum's corm gets bigger than a beach ball—some have been known to reach more than 200 pounds.
“Titan arums are rare. Titan arums don’t flower often—whether in the wild or at botanic gardens.
“A native of the equatorial rainforests on the island of Sumatra (in the Indonesian archipelago), Amorphophallus titanum takes its time to grow before blooming—often ten years or more. Each year, the corm sends up a leaf to absorb energy from the sun. Finally the corm has enough energy stored to send up a flower bud and try to reproduce, and it’s worth the wait: an utterly thrilling visual phenomenon.”
Follow the link above to watch a time-lapse video of a spathe opening and closing over a 24-hour period.
Retired economics professor (“dismal scientist”). Married 40+ years to the love of my life; we have two grown daughters, both married, two granddaughters and a...
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