Rare Flower Expected to Bloom at UI

It is just a matter of time before a rare tropical plant housed at University of Illinois' Plant Biology Building starts to bloom.

The plant is a titan arum, but it is commonly known as a "corpse flower" because of its pungent odor. Greenhouse Manager Debbie Black said the scent, which smells like raw meat, will travel once the plant blooms, so that it can attract beetles, flesh flies, and other pollinators.

"They have to move out to bring that pollinator in because you're not going to find a field of titan arum's anywhere," Black said. "They're not real prevalent, and so this odor really has to move quite a long distance."

To improve its chances of pollination, the corpse flower heats up to near human body temperature by burning stored carbohydrates. Black said the flower will only be open for two days, and it well then go dormant for up to six months.

The plant was grown from a seed given to the U of I by a botanist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who cultivated "Big Bucky," the first titan arum to bloom in Wisconsin. After that plant flowered in 2001 in Wisconsin, the seed was harvested and shared with Illinois and several other institutions.

Less than 100 plants of its kind have bloomed in cultivation in the U.S. since the first titan arum unfurled at the New York Botanical Gardens in 1937.

The greenhouses and plant collections at 1201 S. Dorner Drive, Urbana are open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The hours may be extended and may include 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, depending on when the flower blooms.