Friday, June 27, 2014

Corpse Flower

In Jacksonville, a man named Calvin Beaver is excited after 12 years of cultivating rare and exotic plants, to finally see his "Corpse Flower" - Amorphophallus titanum - bloom at last.

The plant usually requires seven to ten years before blooming for the first time. And after the initial blooming, it may not bloom again for another decade, while others may bloom every couple years. There's no second-guessing these critters. It's called the Corpse Flower because it smells like decomposing flesh to attract pollinators.

The Corpse Flower grows in the wild only in the equatorial rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, where was discovered just prior to its classification in 1878, and it was not successfully cultivated to bloom in American until 1937. If you want to try your hand at growing your own, learn how here and buy seeds here.

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