Corpse flowers. No, it's not the name of a black/death metal band (AFAIK).
It's a group of plants known for their
really bad odor, like the smell of, surprise, surprise rotting flesh. Now, why would a flower choose a smell like that, in stead of a sweet fragrance of nectar? The answer is to attract insects typically found feeding on corpses. For pollination purposes.
One of them is the
Amorphophallus titanum. (For some reason the immage link doesn't work, so here's the url:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphophallus_titanum#/media/File:Titan-arum1web.jpg)
The name, which translates to "
giant misshapen penis", derives from the shape of it's flower,. Which BTW is (according to Wikipedia) the "largest unbranched inflorescence in the world", measuring up to 3 meters.
The odor from this plant contains among other, the following ingredients:
- Dimethyl trisulfide (smells like limburger cheese)
- Trimethylamine (like rotting fish)
- Isovaleric acid (like sweaty socks)
- Phenol (like the analgesic Chloraseptic - "Does anyone else cringe at the smell of chloraseptic spray?")
- Indole (like human feces)
- Dimethyl disulfide (cabbage-like smell, highly disagreeable at even quite low concentrations)
Impressing!
Another group of corpse flowers are the orchids in the
Bulbophyllum genus. These are said to smell like "a herd of dead elephants", making it "difficult to walk into a greenhouse in which they are being cultivated if the plants are in bloom because of their overpowering floral odor". Which of course begs the question: Why on earth would anyone want to cultivate plants like this? In greenhouses!!! I thought biological weapons were illegal. Apparently they are sought by collectors. Something that probably should be covered in one of the many hoarders-with-problems reality shows.
Now, where does these plants grow? The obvious answer would of course be Australia, but that seems not to be the case. They are mainly found in places like Indonesia, Sumatra, New Guinea… Which after all is the close neighbourhood. And there is one
Bulbophyllum fletcherianum in the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens.
Typically for these plants is that they rarely flower, it takes years between their episodes of bloom. The one in Melbourne has flowered only 3 times, in 1980, 2002 and 2005. Recently 7
Amorphophallus titanum plants have been found flowering at the same time in the US, which according to
this youtube link may be a sign of the, for almost 2000 years, imminent upcoming of end of the world.
pibbur who hopefully smells a bit better.