There’s apparently nothing more novel than a stinky flower.
Hence the heightened attention when a corpse flower blooms, and especially locally. One such flower was expected to bloom late Monday or Tuesday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.
Corpse flowers only emit a stench when in bloom, and they smell like a rotting corpse — hence their name, said Amy Kochsiek, continuing assistant professor in the Gustavus departments of biology and environment, geography and earth sciences.
“These flowers bloom sporadically and unpredictably,” she said. “The bloom doesn’t last long, so people are very interested and traveling to see it because you never know when it’ll happen.”
The corpse flower predicted to bloom soon at Gustavus is one of what’s called the Gemini twins and are relatives of Perrita, a corpse flower that previously bloomed last summer. The plants are all in the Nobel Hall greenhouse on the Gustavus campus.
Kochsiek described the Gemini twins as having two above-ground structures. One is in the state of blooming right now, she said. The other is “doing something, but we’re not sure if it’s going to make a leaf or if it will develop into a big flower. We never know which it’s going to be.”
The smell when a corpse flower blooms is so intense it can be detected from outside the glass of the greenhouse. Kochsiek’s office is down the hall at Nobel, and she can smell it from there.
“I would describe it as potent and a bit overwhelming,” she said. “It does a good job of advertising for pollinators but, like I said, it doesn’t flower for very long. You can start smelling it before the flower opens and then when it opens, it’s quite potent. It does smell like rotting meat. That’s how it got its name, the corpse flower, because it smells like a rotting corpse.”
The corpse flower is native to Sumatra, Indonesia, but can also be found at conservatories such as the one at Como Zoo in St. Paul. The flowers also have been obtained by universities.
Scientifically named Amorphophallus titanum, the plant is endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The driving force behind the endangerment is logging and deforestation of its natural habitat.
The only way for the public to view Gemini blooming is via the college’s webcam at gustavus.edu/about/webcam/?cam=2.
“I think it’s a novelty,” Kochsiek said. “It’s interesting. The blooms are quite large too. These are big flowers. People find it really interesting. When it flowers, it can be taller than me. I’m 5-foot-6, so it’s big and kind of novel to have a really stinky bloom like that.”