Today I can say I checked seeing a corpse flower off my bucket list! ✅
A WHAT???
A titan arum, nicknamed a corpse flower due to the stench it emits when it blooms, only blooms for about 24 to 48 hours and we got to see one today at JC Raulston Arboretum. “Wolfgang” (what the plant has been named 😂) had already started to close back up today, but we still felt lucky to see what we did!
For these large plants, it can take up to 10 years for its first bloom, and then when they bloom after that varies greatly. Some are known to bloom every 2 years, others may take another 10!
The Arboretum cut a small patch in the side of Wolfgang so that pollen can be collected and you can see inside. In photo 4 here, you can see both the female flowers (reddish) and the male flowers (whiteish) of the plant.
As for the smell… thankfully it seemed to have tamed a bit while we were there due to it starting to close up, but there definitely was a noticeable stench at times. 🤢
The first four photos here are of Wolfgang, but you can see from the rest of the photos, there’s never a bad time to visit the rest of the Arboretum as well!
We’d recommend checking out the Arboretum’s social media pages since they have photos and videos of Wolfgang at full bloom, which are magnificent.
Just another day where we’re grateful we live in this amazing area that has so many unique and exciting opportunities to learn.
Have you ever seen a corpse flower? Let us know in the comments!
(Note: We're currently working on updating our website with our reviews. This review was originally posted on Instagram and Facebook on June 22, 2023.)
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