Christopher Powers

 

KINGSTON, R.I. - The University of Rhode Island Greenhouse is home to many plants, but none bigger and more rare than one. That flower is known as the corpse flower, the largest flower in the world.

 

The real name for the flower is Amorphophallus Titanum and it wound up at URI thanks to Brian Maynard, a professor of horticulture here at the school. 

 

“It stinks, it really stinks,” says Maynard of the corpse flower. He bought the flower on Ebay about three years ago for about $225 and it has been growing since, putting up a single leaf about 6 to 7 feet tall that lasts for four months. 

 

“When you run a conservatory the plant to have is the corpse flower, or Amorphophallus Titanum,” he said. Maynard believes that when working with many plants, which he does, you have to look for what stimulates people’s interests, because that is what horticulture is. This flower seems to be the one that generates the most interest in the greenhouse, but not for all of the reasons you would think. 

 

The flower is beautiful and the largest flower in the world, but it is the smell that is intriguing to many who go to see it up close. Maynard says it smells so bad but people think it is beautiful, but they want to know why it smells. 

    

“When people ask why it smells than you can teach them something,” Maynard said, adding, “It stinks because it is pollinated by flies and things that are attracted to dead meat, so there is a teaching moment.”

   

 This very flower came into America in the 1930s and there has been fewer than 100 bloomings in the country. Maynard said that it is not difficult to grow, it is just very rare, and it bloomed because it was kept out in the sunlight. 

    

“The best you can hope for is for it to bloom every 2^nd or 3^rd year,” he said. This flower here at URI bloomed this fall and was presentable for almost 40-45 hours before it collapsed down and now all that is left is the female part of the flower.   

   

 “It really stinks, so it stretches people’s expectations of flowers,” he said. “People expect flowers to smell nice so when they smell bad it leaves a big impression.”

    

Maynard hopes to have more corpse flowers in the future and says that everyone will eventually have at least one. They are very easy to take care of because half of the year it is dormant. These flowers are very exciting and fascinating as Maynard called them, because you don’t think of things that smell like rotting flesh, to be beautiful.