34-468: (Redirected from Corpse Flower ) Corpse flower can refer to: Amorphophallus titanum , species, also known as the Titan arum , which has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world Carrion flowers or stinking flowers , any flower that emits an odor that smells like rotting flesh Rafflesia , plant genus containing the species Rafflesia arnoldii ,
68-623: A 117 kilograms (258 lb) corm produced three simultaneous blooms. There was also a triplet bloom at the Chicago Botanic Garden in May 2020 named "The Velvet Queen", but viewing was closed to the public due to COVID-19 . The spathe generally begins to open between mid-afternoon and late evening and remains open all night. At this time, the female flowers are receptive to pollination. Although most spathes begin to wilt within 12 hours, some have been known to remain open for 24 to 48 hours. As
102-436: A fragrant spadix of flowers wrapped by a spathe , which looks like a large petal. In the case of the titan arum, the spathe is a deep green on the outside and dark burgundy red on the inside, with a deeply furrowed texture. The spadix is almost hollow and resembles a large baguette . Near the bottom of the spadix, hidden from view inside the sheath of the spathe, the spadix bears two rings of small flowers. The upper ring bears
136-624: A national institution dedicated to science and botanical studies. Both the City of Brussels and the Home Office supported the Botanical Garden financially. But, the independence of Belgium (1830–31) was detrimental to the Dutch-born institution; it was regarded as orangist , as a mere playground for the local elites, and as not useful for the country's agriculture, among other critiques. From then on,
170-452: A new one grows in its place. When the corm has stored enough energy, it becomes dormant for about four months. Then the process repeats. A. titanum is native solely to western Sumatra, where it grows in openings in rainforests on limestone hills. However, the plant is cultivated by botanical gardens and private collectors around the world. In the wild, the titan arum only grows in the equatorial rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. It
204-508: A small tree and reaches a similar size, grows from the underground corm . The leaf grows on a patterned green and white stalk that branches into three sections at the top, each containing many leaflets. The leaf structure can reach up to 6 m (20 ft) tall and 5 m (16 ft) across. The stalk, or petiole bearing the leaf can be 38 to 41 centimetres (15 to 16 in) thick at soil level and 30 to 32 centimetres (12 to 13 in) high at breast height (D.B.H.). The old leaf dies, and
238-471: Is endemic to rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra . Because its flower blooms infrequently and only for a short period, it gives off a powerful scent to help attract pollinators quickly and effectively. The strong odor it emits resembles that of rotting flesh. As a consequence, it is characterized as a carrion flower , and is also known as the corpse flower or corpse plant , translated from
272-420: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Amorphophallus titanum Amorphophallus titanum , the titan arum , is a flowering plant in the family Araceae . It has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The inflorescence of the talipot palm, Corypha umbraculifera , is larger, but it is branched rather than unbranched. A. titanum
306-510: Is held by a corm grown at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, which weighed 153.9 kg (339 lb) after seven years' growth from an initial corm the size of an orange. The tallest documented inflorescence was at Meise Botanic Garden on 13 August 2024 and reached 322.5 cm. The titan arum's inflorescence can reach over 3 m (10 ft) in height. Like the related cuckoo pint and calla lily , it consists of
340-645: Is the largest known, typically weighing around 50 kg (110 lb). When a specimen at the Princess of Wales Conservatory, Kew Gardens , was repotted after its dormant period, the weight was recorded as 91 kg (201 lb). In 2006, a corm in the Botanical Garden of Bonn , Germany, was recorded at 117 kg (258 lb), and an A. titanum grown in Gilford, New Hampshire by Dr. Louis Ricciardiello in 2010 weighed 138 kg (305 lb). The current record
374-508: Is used when citing housed specimens. The botanic garden's mission statement specifies increasing and spreading "the knowledge of plants" and contributions to "the conservation of biodiversity ". Research at the garden is primarily conducted on Belgian and African biodiversity (incl. plants, fungi, myxomycetes, diatoms). Meise Botanic Garden was property of the Belgian Federal Government , but after several years of negotiations, it
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#1732852347706408-603: The National Botanic Garden of Belgium (Dutch: Nationale Plantentuin van België ; French: Jardin Botanique National de Belgique ), is a botanical garden located in the grounds of Bouchout Castle in Meise , Flemish Brabant , just north of Brussels . It is one of the world's largest botanical gardens, with an extensive collection of living plants and a herbarium of about 4 million specimens. The current garden
442-542: The 1860s, the aging buildings required renovation. The board of the Society of Horticulture tried to raise the money, but the costs were just too high for the company. In 1870, the Belgian Government took over the company. The National Botanic Garden was created in the very same year. Barthélemy Dumortier , a Belgian politician and botanist, had played a major role in this process. He wanted a "Belgian Kew " to be created in
476-597: The architect Alphonse Balat and transported from its original location at the Botanical Garden of Brussels. During the Second World War , Bouchout Castle was occupied by the German forces and the domain was altered into a fortress. Next to the Palace of Plants, six barracks were placed and concrete defenses were erected. The court of honour of Bouchout Castle was used to store ammunition, while artillery defences were placed at
510-523: The botanical gardens in Bonn, under optimal cultivation conditions, the plants flowered every other year. A plant has also been flowering every second year (2012 to 2022) in the Copenhagen Botanical Garden . Consecutive blooms occurring within a year have been documented and corms simultaneously sending up both a leaf (or two) and an inflorescence. There was also an occasion in Bonn, Germany, when
544-562: The capital, that is to say a botanical garden dedicated to taxonomy. That is why, some months before the garden was bought by the State, the Government had purchased the famous Von Martius Herbarium that was held in Munich . So, in 1870, Belgium had a great herbarium and an appropriate building. This marked the dawn of a new era for Belgian botany. In 1927, just after the death of Empress Charlotte , it
578-473: The city administration. In 1826, a group of local bourgeois decided to create a new kind of botanical garden in Brussels. At the time the bourgeoisie was the new leading-class, and since companies were a popular financing method, the garden was created as a company. The creators thought it would be their contribution to the city's reputation. Although it was rooted on a private enterprise, it was also intended to be
612-465: The cultivation requirements for garden specimens are known in detail, so is now common for five or more flowerings to occur in gardens around the world in a single year. Challenging cultivation constraints mean that the plant is rarely cultivated by amateur gardeners. However, in 2011, Roseville High School in California became the first school in the world to bring a titan arum to bloom. In May 2003,
646-529: The designation of the titan arum as the official flower of the Bronx in 1939, but it was replaced in 2000 by the day lily . In the Botanical Gardens of Bonn, the titan arum has been cultivated since 1932, and the largest collection was built up by Wilhelm Barthlott after 1988. About 30 inflorescences have been recorded and researched since. The number of cultivated plants has increased in recent years because
680-404: The garden would have to battle to survive. The State and the City did not want to support it anymore unless it proved useful to the whole country, so the Botanical Garden was obliged to develop its commercial activities. It sold plants by the thousands, and created several money-consuming attractions and events for the local elite, like aquaria , a dance room, fairs, a fish nursery, concerts etc. In
714-615: The largest single flower on Earth Corpse Flower (album) , collaboration album by Mike Patton and Jean-Claude Vannier Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Corpse flower . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Corpse_flower&oldid=1257214825 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Plant common name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
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#1732852347706748-443: The male flowers and the lower ring is spangled with bright red-orange carpels . The odor ("fragrance") of the titan arum resembles rotting meat, attracting carrion -eating beetles and flesh flies (family Sarcophagidae ) that pollinate it. The inflorescence's deep red color and texture contribute to the illusion that the spathe is a piece of meat. During bloom, the tip of the spadix is roughly human body temperature , which helps
782-536: The original Indonesian word bunga bangkai ( bunga means flower, and bangkai can be translated as corpse, cadaver, or carrion). The titan arum's berries arrange in a regular cylindrical form that resembles the packing of spheres inside a cylindrical confinement. Those structures are also called columnar structures or crystals. A. titanum derives its name from Ancient Greek ( ἄμορφος amorphos , "without form, misshapen" + φαλλός phallos , " phallus ", and Τιτάν Titan , "titan, giant"). Its corm
816-399: The perfume volatilize. The heat is also believed to contribute to the illusion of it being a dead body, to attract carcass-eating insects. Both male and female flowers grow in the same inflorescence. The female flowers open first, and the male flowers open a day or two later. That usually prevents the flower from self-pollinating . After the flower dies back, a single leaf, which resembles
850-480: The spadix show the stench includes dimethyl trisulfide (like limburger cheese ), dimethyl disulfide (garlic), trimethylamine (rotting fish), isovaleric acid ( sweaty socks ), benzyl alcohol (sweet floral scent), phenol (like Chloraseptic ), and indole (like feces). Meise Botanic Garden Meise Botanic Garden ( Dutch : Plantentuin Meise ; French : Jardin botanique de Meise ), until 2014 called
884-425: The spathe gradually opens, the spadix heats up to 37 °C (99 °F), and rhythmically releases powerful odors to attract insects which feed on dead animals or lay their eggs in rotting meat. The potency of the odor gradually increases from late evening until the middle of the night, when carrion beetles and flesh flies are active as pollinators, then tapers off towards morning. Analyses of chemicals released by
918-742: The spathe wilts, the female flowers lose receptivity to pollination. Self-pollination was once considered impossible but, in 1992, botanists in Bonn successfully hand-pollinated their plant with its own pollen, using ground-up male flowers, resulting in fruit and hundreds of seeds, from which numerous seedlings were eventually produced and distributed. Additionally, a titan arum at Gustavus Adolphus College , in Minnesota, unexpectedly produced viable seed through self-pollination in 2011. The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) has also bloomed at three of Indonesia's botanical gardens: Kebun Raya Bogor , Kebun Raya Cibodas , and Kebun Raya Purwodadi . As
952-612: The tallest inflorescence in cultivation, 3.2 metres (10 ft) high, measured from its corm and 3.07 metres (10.1 ft) from the soil surface, was grown at the Botanical Garden Bonn in Germany; this record was analyzed, photographed, and documented in detail. The event was acknowledged by Guinness World Records . The largest inflorescence in the USA by Louis Ricciardiello, measured 3.10 m (10 ft 2 in) tall in 2010, when it
986-618: Was created during the French rule of Belgium at the end of the 18th century. Due to their costs, those French schools were soon dropped and some municipalities , including the City of Brussels , took over the garden that was about to be abandoned. In 1815, Belgium became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands . Around the same period, the maintenance costs of the garden were regarded as too high by
1020-412: Was established in 1958 after moving from central Brussels; the former site is now the Botanical Garden of Brussels . Meise Botanic Garden contains about 18,000 plant species — about 6% of all the world's known plant species. Half are in greenhouses , the other half, including cultivated and indigenous plants, are outdoors. The Index Herbariorum code assigned to this botanic garden is BR , which
1054-630: Was eventually transferred to the Flemish Community effective 1 January 2014. The French Community still has its own employees and representation in the board of directors. The plants, library, etc. remain property of the Federal State, but are given as commodate to the Flemish Community. The first botanical garden in Brussels belonged to the École Centrale of the department of the Dyle that
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1088-592: Was first scientifically described in 1878 by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari . The plant flowers only infrequently in the wild. It first flowered in cultivation at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , London, in 1889, with over 100 cultivated blossoms since then. The first documented flowerings in the United States were at the New York Botanical Garden in 1937 and 1939. That flowering also inspired
1122-522: Was on display at Winnipesaukee Orchids in Gilford, New Hampshire, US. This event, too, was acknowledged by Guinness World Records. In cultivation, the titan arum generally requires five to ten years of vegetative growth before blooming for the first time. After a plant's initial blooming, there can be considerable variation in its blooming frequency. The cultivation conditions are known in detail. Some plants may not bloom again for another seven to ten years, while others may bloom every two or three years. At
1156-607: Was proposed to set up the National Botanical Garden at the Bouchout Domain. It took until 1937 before the final decision was made and major constructions were started. To the south-east of Bouchout Castle , the "Palace of Plants" was built, which consists of a number of greenhouses . Further to the south-west of the castle, the Victorian Balat Greenhouse was placed. This greenhouse was designed in 1853 by
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