Likely the Most Unique Looking—and Smelling—Plant in History

Name:Corpse flower(Amorphophallus titanum)

Zones:10–11

Size:6 to 9 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide

shape : Partial specter ; moist , well - drained soil

Native scope : Sumatra

As a child , I lusted in my heart . Not , as myparents feared , for the women envision inPlayboy , but for stiff flower , whose aphrodisiac photo first come out in A.B. Graf ’s 1959 works erotica account book , ExoticaII . straightaway , my life seeking became acquiring this awful works . In the early 1990s , after only 26 document flowering worldwide , I get wind that Dr. James Symon of California was seeking funding for an expedition to Sumatra to collect seed . I was in . As a young job possessor , I was break with maxed - out credit scorecard , but who require to eat up when you have the chance to adopt the plant with the world ’s largest inflorescence ? Somehow I scraped up the money to grease one’s palms a parcel of what would turn out to be four hostile expedition over several years before seed was finally found .

Six hundred flowering subsequently , corpse flush are still rare and coveted by citizenry for whom they are n’t winter stalwart — myself include . Most people who purchase them do n’t have housing adequate to get the plant large enough to flower — and that ’s if they can keep them alive . But in my persuasion , it ’s deserving the try . I guess there ’s something magical about an 8 - understructure - marvellous blossoming that smells like two - week - old refuse that I just ca n’t baulk .

The Expert : Tony Aventis the proprietor of Juniper Level Botanic Garden and Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh , North Carolina .

From Fine horticulture # 193

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