World’s Largest Flower That Survives Only for 48 Hours Blooms in India

[angelburst29]

The world’s largest and short lived flower which has life span of only 48 hours has bloomed in the south Indian state of Kerala after nine years.

World’s Largest Flower That Survives Only for 48 Hours Blooms in India (Video)
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160726/1043640739/india-flower-bloom.html

The southern coastal state of Kerala is the centre of attraction due to a rare flower which has bloomed after nine long years.

People are flocking at the Gurukula Botanical Sancturay at Alattil, near Periya in the north Wayanad in Kerala to get a glimpse of the Amorphophallus titanum or the corpse flower.

Amorphophallus titanum is native to Indonesia's Sumatra region. The flower smells like rotten flesh and survives only for 48 hours.

According to the conservationist of the sanctuary, Suma Keloth, the corpse flower cannot self-pollinate. Thus, the stench it emits for pollination attracts bees and carrion beetles that live on animal carcasses.

Classified as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the flower is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. It is uncommon in cultivation and blooms are even more rare. It also produces the largest leaf in the world reaching 15-20 feet high.

This plant was first discovered in Sumatra, Indonesia in 1878 by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari, and immediately received world-wide attention due to its massive size, appearance and the nauseating odor resembling rotten flesh.

The corpse flower has been in news for its recent blooms in Chicago in April 2016, UK in May 2016 and Australia in December 2015.

 

[aluminumfalcon]

Thanks for the post angelburst29. This is a really an exraordinary flower. This article reminds me of the recent bloom at Ohio State University. I did not get a chance to go see it but I found it both bizzare and intriquing. Here's the article from the OSU bloom


_https://bioscigreenhouse.osu.edu/titan-arum-faqs

Titan Arum FAQs


What makes the Titan Arum so special?
The Titan Arum or Corpse Flower is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. An inflorescence is a floral structure composed of many smaller individual flowers. The bloom of the Titan Arum is typically between 6 and 8 feet tall (the largest on record was just over 10 feet tall) and it emits a foul odor of rotting flesh, thus the name corpse flower. These plants are uncommon in cultivation and blooms are even more rare. The plant also produces the largest leaf in the world reaching 15-20' high.

Titan Arum Bloom
Image courtesy of University of Wisconsin-Madison​

Why does the bloom stink?
The bloom uses the scent of rotting flesh to attract pollinators, mainly flies. The first evening of bloom is when the female flowers are open and receptive to pollen. This is the time when the bloom smells the most so it can lure in flies which hopefully have visited another Titan Arum bloom recently and are carrying pollen. The tall center part of the bloom, the spadix, actually heats up the first night to help disperse the odor far distances. The temperature of the spadix will reach about 98F, about the same temperature as the human body.

What is the lifecycle of the Titan Arum?
The image below will help to explain the lifecycle. The seed will germinate and grow into a small leaf with an underground tuber, similar to a potato. After 12-18 months the above ground leaf will die back (just like tulips in summer) and the plant will be in dormancy for 3-6 months. When a new bud appears, the emerging leaf will be larger than the previous leaf. Meanwhile the tuber below ground continues to grow larger. The plant will go through many dormancy and leaf cycles through its life. On the rare occasion, instead of a leaf emerging from the dormant tuber, a bloom emerges instead. Typically the plant needs to be at least 7-10 years old and the tuber at least 35 lbs in weight before it will bloom.

Titan Arum Life cylce
Image courtesy of University of Wisconsin-Madison​

Where does the Titan Arum come from?
It is native to the rainforests of Sumatra in Indonesia. Already uncommon in the wild, the Titan Arum is under additional population pressure as their native habitats are rapidly being destroyed primarily due to illegal logging and land conversion for agricultural use to feed a growing population. Titans are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

How did OSU get a Titan Arum?
Our Titan Arum was planted from seed in November 2001 in the OSU Biological Sciences Greeenhouse. The seed was obtained from the University of Wisconsin-Madison from "Big Bucky" which bloomed in June 2001 and was hand-pollinated with pollen preserved from "Mr. Magnificent", a May 2001-blooming Titan Arum at the Marie Selby Botanical Garden. This is the first documented Titan Arum grown from seed to bloom in Ohio. We have 5 specimens in the collection from this lot of seeds.

Who discovered the Titan Arum?
In 1878, the Italian natural scientist Odoardo Beccari discovered the Titan Arum during his exploration of Sumatra. He collected seeds and sent them to Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, where he had once studied. The first bloom of this species in cultivation occurred at Kew in 1889.

How do they get named?
There is a tradition among conservatories where the Titan Arums have bloomed to name them as they bloom. In 2011, when OSU's first Titan Arum bloomed, we decided to name it "Woody" after OSU legend and beloved football coach Woody Hayes. We are carried on the tradition of naming the blooms after notable Buckeyes by naming the 2012 specimen "Jesse" after OSU track star and Olympian Jesse Owens. In 2013, the "Woody " specimen bloomed for a second time and we had a third specimen bloom, named "Maudine." Maudine's namesake was the 1926 OSU Homecoming Queen, Maudine Ormsby, who also happend to be a cow!

Do I have a Titan Arum growing outside in my Ohio garden?
No, the Titan Arum is tropical and will die in freezing Ohio winters. We receive many inquiries about a "tall stinky flower" growing in Ohio gardens. There are a number of Voodoo Lilies which are related to the the Titan Arum. The Voodoo Lily blooms can be up to 6 feet tall however, the peduncle (bloom stalk) makes up the majority of the bloom's height. For the Titan Arum, the peduncle is only 6-8" of the 6-8' bloom. The spathe (frilly outer skirt) can reach 3-4' wide on a Titan Arum.

List of OSU Titan Arum blooms
April 23, 2011 "Woody" height 65.75"
May 25, 2012 "Jesse" height 67.5" successful pollination produced fruits
May 14, 2013 "Woody" (second bloom referred to as "Woody 2") height 72.5"
May 24, 2013 "Maudine" height 54.5" successful pollination produced fruits
August 23, 2013 "Scarlet" height 66.5"

 

[angelburst29]

Smelly 'corpse flower' about to bloom in NYC: How to watch it live
http://www.livescience.com/55533-corpse-flower-about-to-bloom.html

The stench of rotting flesh will soon permeate the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), possibly today (July 25), when a rare plant known as a corpse flower blooms and releases an odor similar to that of putrefying flesh, botanists say.

Despite the stench, horticulturalists and the public are flocking to see it, partly because the corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum — a scientific name that translates to "giant misshapen phallus") blooms only for a few days once every seven to 10 years, representatives from the NYBG said.

"Perhaps [people come] because it is one of the largest flowers in the world, and its blooming cycle is unpredictable," NYBG representatives said in a statement. "But more likely, it is due to the infamous odor it releases during its brief 24- [to] 36-hour peak bloom — like the smell of rotting meat." [Photos: Stinky 'Corpse Flower' Blooms]

People who can't make it to the garden in the Bronx can watch a live stream of the corpse flower on YouTube, NYBG representatives added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfV5K_uJ-iM

 

[Mr.Cyan]

Just to add, there is also another giant flower called Rafflesia found in tropical forests of South East Asia. It is actually a kind of fungus, and flowers are about 1m in diameter, and also smells of rotting flesh when in bloom.

More info from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafflesia

Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. It contains approximately 28 species (including four incompletely characterized species as recognized by Willem Meijer in 1997), all found in southeastern Asia, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.[1] It was first found in the Indonesian rain forest in Bengkulu, Sumatra by an Indonesian guide working for Dr. Joseph Arnold in 1818, and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the leader of the expedition. It was discovered even earlier by Louis Deschamps in Java between 1791 and 1794, but his notes and illustrations, seized by the British in 1803, were not available to western science until 1861.

The plant has no stems, leaves or true roots. It is a holoparasite of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), spreading its absorptive organ, the haustorium, inside the tissue of the vine. The only part of the plant that can be seen outside the host vine is the five-petaled flower. In some species, such as Rafflesia arnoldii, the flower may be over 100 centimetres (39 in) in diameter, and weigh up to 10 kilograms (22 lb). Even one of the smallest species, R. baletei, has 12 cm diameter flowers. The flowers look and smell like rotting flesh, hence its local names which translate to "corpse flower" or "meat flower" (see below). The foul odor attracts insects such as flies, which transport pollen from male to female flowers. Most species have separate male and female flowers, but a few have hermaphroditic flowers. Little is known about seed dispersal. However, tree shrews and other forest mammals eat the fruits and disperse the seeds. Rafflesia is the official state flower of Indonesia known as Puspa langka (Rare flower) or Padma Raksasa (Giant flower), the Sabah state in Malaysia, and of the Surat Thani Province, Thailand.

The name "corpse flower" applied to Rafflesia can be confusing because this common name also refers to the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) of the family Araceae. Moreover, because Amorphophallus has the world's largest unbranched inflorescence, it is sometimes mistakenly credited as having the world's largest flower. Both Rafflesia and Amorphophallus are flowering plants, but they are only distantly related. Rafflesia arnoldii has the largest single flower of any flowering plant, at least in terms of weight. A. titanum has the largest unbranched inflorescence, while the talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) forms the largest branched inflorescence, containing thousands of flowers; the talipot is monocarpic, meaning the individual plants die after flowering.

 

[mkrnhr]

Today sciencealert published this article: _http://www.sciencealert.com/no-one-really-knows-why-but-america-s-corpse-flowers-are-all-blooming-at-once?

They write:

America's pungent corpse flowers are all mysteriously blooming at once

A foul mystery.

Botanists across the US are trying to figure out why so many titan arums – better known as corpse flowers – are blooming simultaneously around the country this year.

This is super weird, because there have only been 157 recorded blooms ever between 1889 and 2008. But this year in the US alone, at least seven flowers have bloomed.

etc.

The reason is not clear yet but it could be symbolic to some extent.

 

[Mr.Cyan]

The reason is not clear yet but it could be symbolic to some extent.

Thanks for the info mkrnhr - I think it could be symbolic too and Mother Earth is definitely sending a signal.