The Corpse Flower: Behind the Stink
July 24, 2013—After an anxious wait, the famous corpse flower finally bloomed at the U.S. Botanic Garden. While many visitors expected to smell the flower's powerful scent, a few were a little disappointed. Learn the science behind the corpse flower's smell.
Transcript
National Geographic News
"The Corpse Flower: Behind the Stink"
July 24, 2013
Visitor 1: "I'm interested to see the stinky, corpse-y smell."
Visitor 2: "According to this brochure, it's a stinky plant."
Visitor 3: "Well, they said rotting meat. So I'm going to assume if it's in bloom it is going to stink."
SOUNDBITE: Ari Novy, US Botanic Garden, Public Program Manager
"We're display a titan arum. The latin name of this plant is Amorphophallus titanium. It's a really awesome plant that was first discovered to Western scientists in the late 1800s by an Italian explorer in Sumatra, Indonesia."
"It's got this crazy, disgusting smell. In fact, the Indonesian name for the plant directly translates as 'corpse flower' and it smells like a rotting corpse."
SOUNDBITE: Bill McLaughlin, US Botanic Garden, Plant Curator
"The peak smells usually comes within just a couple of hours of opening. So as soon as it is open enough, it starts generating the stench and that peaks within three to four hours later."
"The way the flower works is it has two runs of flowers down in its base, and the female flowers are the first to start. And their strategy is to put the cattle call out to every carrion fly, beetle, sweat fly...
SOUNDBITE: Ari Novy, US Botanic Garden, Public Program Manager
"They think they are going towards a rotting corpse which is what they love. They love to eat them. They like to lay eggs in them. They like to have a great time in them."
SOUNDBITE: Bill McLaughlin, US Botanic Garden, Plant Curator
"So it pulses that smell out to get insects in that hopefully already have pollen on them from a previous plant that was in the male cycle somewhere in the area. So they come in, the heat generates the smell. It's just overwhelmingly wonderful for them."
SOUNDBITE: Ari Novy, US Botanic Garden, Public Program Manager
"The plant only releases the putrid smell for two nights. The insects actually get trapped inside the plant."
SOUNDBITE: Bill McLaughlin, US Botanic Garden, Plant Curator
"And then the male flowers open up. It's already got the pollinators inside. It doesn't need to make any more smell. So after that first twelve hours, its got what it needs in there, it starts raining pollen down on them and then it can let them go. It kind of starts easing up after the flower's been open about 24, 36 hours. And the beetles can escape, again with pollen on them."
SOUNDBITE: Sheila Mintz-Woodward, Visitor
"It didn't smell that bad, actually. I didn't smell any really bad odor but I guess it was if you got close enough. We weren't that close."
SOUNDBITE: Frances Tirado, Visitor
"It wasn't as strong as I thought it would be. But I could kind of smell it. It smelled like a mixture of maggots and really smelly feet."
SOUNDBITE: Ari Novy, US Botanic Garden, Public Program Manager
"Fortunately for the public, the plant produces its most odoriferous emissions the middle of the night from about midnight to 4am. So nobody will be around. So during the day when the visitors come in, it's just going to be a bit less of that smell. And so people will smell it. And the plant is in a rather large greenhouse and that will dilute the smell a little bit but people should be able it, no problem."
SOUNDBITE: Joseph Pannell-Paci, Visitor
"Every now and then, I could a little whiff and went, 'Whoah!.' Also, I don't really, we don't really smell rotten flesh all that often. Just alone it was cool to look at."
