b'Whats That SMELL?A look at the stinkiestand among the most stunningplants in the world. Treena HeinFOR SOME REASON and thankfully in a year that thePollination and Smellpublic could visit2021 was a banner year for corpse flowerThe corpse flower is a sexually-reproducing plant and obviously blooms across the U.S.cant move around to find a mate, so it must rely on wind and They flowered at Temple University in Pa., the Huntingtonother organisms to spread pollen. Many plants attract pollina-Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens and San Diegotors with strong scents, but in the case of the corpse flower (sci-Botanic Garden in Cali., the New York Botanic Garden, the U.S.entific name Amorphophallus titanium, literally misshapen giant Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C., and at the Universityphallus), it cannot be called anything but a a stench. of Tennessee Knoxville (UT Knoxville). A nursery owner evenIn a recent blog entry for the Chicago Botanic Garden titled displayed his own corpse flower at an abandoned gas sta- About That Smell, the gardens Outdoor Floriculturist Tim Pollak tion in Alameda, Cali., for the public to freely enjoy. A bannerexplains the stinky chemicals include dimethyl trisulfide (also year indeed for a species that has only successfully floweredemitted by limburger cheese) and dimethyl disulfide (similar to outside of its native habitat some 100 times, according to thegarlic). Theres also a lovely note of trimethylamine (also found in International Union for the Conservation of Nature. rotting fish or ammonia), as well as isovaleric acid (sweaty foot-Rotty Top, Jack Smellington and Stankosaurus Rex are somewear smell) and indole (similar to mothballs).of the names given to this years bloomers. To get to know thisA few days before bloom, the corpse flower plant sends up a plant, lets first take a look at the Rotty Tops adventure in Julyspike, called a spadix, which can grow to 12 feet tall in the wild. At 2021, at the UT Knoxville.bloom, the outer covering, called a spathe, opens to reveal a deep On blooming day, Rotty Top was located behind a lockedpurple interior, and its at that point the reek is emitted. To ensure door on the fourth floor of its home building on campus. that stench makes it as far as possible in the dense rainforestWhen I walked in on the first floor, I was immediately hit withenvironment, the plant uses energy its stored up in an under-the stench, says Jeff Martin, manager of the universitys Ecologyground stem called a corm, to generate heat upwards of 90F. and Evolutionary Biology Greenhouses. It was a mix of sulfur/ If pollinated, the spadix is transformed into a large club-like garlic, rotting flesh, and different stages of decomposition, likehead of orange-red seeds, dispersed in the wild by birds such as a four to five day-old dead mouse. The blooms last less than 48the Rhinoceros hornbills and other animals.hours and the smell was the strongest for about 12 hours.Martin explains that in the native habitat of the corpseViewing and Smellingflower in the rainforests of western Sumatra, there would beMartin and his colleagues decided to place Rotty Top in a cer-many plants blooming around the same time, and the animals/ tain office because its near the main door to the building and insects would be the vehicle for the pollen to travel one planthas glass wall panels on two sides for good viewing. to the other.We provided supplemental light and placed a humidifier in Think decomposers and night pollination, insects that laythe area, says Martin. It was also enough room to setup a time-eggs in rotting meat, beetles, flesh flies, he says. lapse camera.38/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2022'