What plant takes 10 years to bloom?

The leaf can reach a height of 20 feet and a diameter of 16 feet. A. titanum usually goes through several leaf cycles before it has stored up enough energy to bloom. It takes from 8 to 20 years for the plant to produce its first bloom.

What flower takes 40 years to bloom?

Amorphophallus Titanum , the largest flower in the. world. It blooms once every 40 years only for 4 days! Also called the Corpse Flower because of the smell.

How many years does it take for a corpse flower to bloom?

The blooming of a corpse plant is a rare and special event, as most plants require seven to ten years to produce their first blooms, and bloom only every four to five years thereafter.

Is the corpse flower edible?

While one of the best known aroids, the titan arum or corpse flower, is inedible , Araceae contains many edible species, including the intriguingly named 'delicious monster', and one of the oldest cultivated crops in the world.

What is the smelliest plant in the world?

On June 18, the world's "rarest and smelliest plant", the Titan arum , started to flower at Kew Gardens. It's rare and unpleasant odour has drawn in large crowds of spectators.

What flower only blooms every 3000 years?

The rare Youtan Poluo or Udumbara flower , which, according to Buddhist legend, only blooms every 3,000 years, measures just 1mm in diametre.

What flower only blooms once every 100 years?

Agave Americana Blooms Once Every Hundred Years Ironically, the plant is known as a century plant, although on average the plant blooms about every 30 years.

What is the rarest flower in the world?

The Middlemist Red Camellia , or Camellia japonica 'Middlemist's Red,' is an exceptionally rare flower with vibrant pinkish-red petals. With only two known living specimens in the world, both located in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, it holds the title of the rarest flowering plant on Earth. 7.

Where can I see a corpse flower in the United States?

A corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum), also known as titan arum, has bloomed at the U.S. Botanic Garden. It is the first bloom for the plant, which was propagated by a leaf cutting from another USBG A. titanum.

What are some fun facts about the corpse flower?

The Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum) is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom. It can grow more than 8 feet tall, blooms for only 1 to 3 days every year or so, and boasts a powerful stench when it blooms, earning the flower its putrid name.

What do corpse flowers smell like?

titanum emits a decay-like stench during its two-day flowering period. The pulsing waves of pungent odors produced by a flowering A. titanum has led to it being referred to as the “corpse plant”. The most common odors describe it as smelling like a rotting animal, a dead mouse, foul, and sulfur-like during flowering.

Is the corpse flower going extinct?

Not extinct Titan arum / Extinction status

Is there a corpse flower in the US?

As part of an ongoing conservation project, the US Botanic Garden hosts and breeds more than 20 mature corpse flowers (or “Amorphophallus Titanum”), which are endangered on their native island of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Does the corpse flower stink?

If you're not familiar with why the flower has its distinctive name – when the corpse flower unfurls, tiny male and female flowers at the base of its large central spike emit a putrid odor, akin to rotting meat and stinky laundry.

Corpse Flowers (2024)

The corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom, boasts a powerful stink, and blooms for just 2-3 days once every year or two. The bloom can grow up to 8 feet tall! This plant fascinates visitors of all ages. Explore the science and conservation work at the U.S. Botanic Garden below!

The U.S. Botanic Garden has a sizeable number of mature corpse flower plants in our collection as part of our conservation work, so if you miss one bloom, don't fret — just keep watching. We expect multiple corpse flower blooms per year. This page will be updated anytime one is coming into bloom.

May 2024 -- our second corpse flower bloom of 2024 opened May 4. This 6-year-old has never bloomed before. It is the result of our hand-pollination using two of our blooms in 2017. It stands 83", as of May 4. Most blooms usually stand for 3-4 days, though the stinky smell is mostly just during the first 12-24 hours when the female flowers are receptive to pollination. Find it in the back of our Tropics house. The Conservatory is open daily 10 am - 5 pm. No tickets required.

April 2024 -- our first corpse flower bloom of 2024 opened the evening of April 24. It was 85" tall.

Corpse Flower and Aroid Conservation

The corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) is listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN), with an estimation of fewer than 1,000 individuals remaining in the wild.IUCN estimates the population has declined more than 50% over the past 150 years. The main reasons for the decline are logging and the conversion of the plant’s native forest habitat to oil palm plantations.

The U.S. Botanic Garden is participating in conservation work related to Amorphophallus titanum and aroids plants. Diversity amongst the gene pool is important for successful conservation of endangered plants held in ex situ conservation collections such as at botanic gardens. The U.S. Botanic Garden helped fund a conference in partnership with Botanic Garden Conservation International on aroid conservation in 2018 that was attended by botanic garden professionals from around the world. As an offshoot from this, many botanic gardens are participating in a national A. titanum conservation project headed by Chicago Botanic Garden.

The goal of the project is to identify and create a database of the genetic makeup of A. titanum plants currently in botanic garden collections. This information will be used to ensure a broadening of the gene pool by creating diversity amongst new offspring by cross-pollination of diverse parent plants. The USBG has gathered and submitted plant material from ourA. titanumcollection to be added into the database. We hope to be able to acquire pollen based on this project to create diverse offspring. The Garden also plans to collect pollen to store for future use by other botanic gardens in this project.

What Makes the Corpse Flower Special?

The allure of the corpse flower comes from its great size (it is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom), powerful stink, and fleeting presence. The plants frequently grow up to 8 feet tall in cultivation. Its putrid smell is most potent during peak bloom at night into the early morning. The odor is often compared to the stench of rotting flesh. The inflorescence (a collection of flowers acting as one) also generates heat, which allows the stench to travel further. This combination of heat and smell efficiently lures corpse-attracted pollinators, such as carrion beetles and flies, from across long distances.

The corpse flower does not have an annual blooming cycle. The bloom emerges from, and energy is stored in, a huge underground stem called a "corm." The plant blooms only when sufficient energy is accumulated, making time between flowering unpredictable, spanning from a few years to more than a decade. It requires very special conditions, including warm day and night temperatures and high humidity, making botanic gardens well suited to support this strange plant outside of its natural range.

This plant is native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and first became known to science in 1878. In its natural habitat, the corpse flower can grow up to 12 feet tall. Public viewings of this unique plant have occurred a limited number of times in the United States. The U.S. Botanic Garden has displayed blooming corpse flowers in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2017 (three blooms), 2020 (two blooms), 2021, and 2022 (four blooms).

Watch a Bloom Time Lapse

Watch a time lapse of a previous corpse flower bloom growing, opening, and collapsing here at the U.S. Botanic Garden.You can explore recordings of live Q&A programs, pollination, conservation, and more in video archive playlist.

Determining Bloom Versus Leaf

Join gardener Stephen to find out what clues he used to determine a previous bud (2020) was a bloom and not a leaf:

Corpse Flower Lifecycle Infographic

(click to see large version):

Chemistry of its smell

Learn more about the plant and its unique smell in this video we helped create:

Corpse flower lifecycle and pollination

Check out this video we helped create about the corpse flower's lifecycle, smell, and reproduction:

We shared the 2016 plant's life cycle via a live webcam, which has now ended. In addition to this video from the morning it started opening, August 2, 2016, you can find all the live webcam videos on our YouTube channel. If you visited, find your date and see yourself with the corpse flower!

Photo of 2013 corpse flower bloom:

The U.S. Botanic Garden has displayed blooming corpse flowers in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2017 (three blooms), and 2020 (two blooms), 2021, and 2022 (four blooms). More than 130,000 people came to see the 2017 bloom in person, and more than 650,000 viewers accessed the live webstream.

About the 2022 Corpse Flower Plants

The first Amorphophallus titanum to bloomin 2022 was 9 years old, grown from seed. It was a sibling to a previousbloom that bloomed at 8 years old.The spadix was first seen onMay 23, 2022. The plant was measured at 52" in height on that day. (See daily height updates below.) The bloom opened on the evening of June 2, 2022, at a height of 97".

The Garden sent a second bloom to Philadelphia in June 2022 as part of a special display spotlighting our aroid collecting in the Philadelphia Flower Show. The plant was sent to Longwood Gardens after the Flower Show, where it bloomed on June 24, 2022, at a height of 76".

The third bloom in 2022 was put on display in the Garden Court on June 23, 2022. It is the fourth bloom for this plant, which previously bloomed in 2013, 2017, and 2019. The plant is 16 years old, making it the oldest in our collection.

We shared a fourth 2022 corpse flower bloom with our friends atSmithsonian Gardens, where it is was on display in theEnid A. Haupt Gardenbehind the Smithsonian Castle. It opened in peak bloom the evening of August 9, 2022, standing 102" tall. The bloom collapsed and was removed on Aug. 15, 2022.It was the second bloom for this plant, which previously bloomed in 2020. The plant was 10 years old.

2022 CORPSE FLOWER #1 HEIGHT

5/19 44"
5/21 47"
5/23 53" (spadix first visible)
5/25 61"
5/27 72"
5/29 80.5"
5/31 88"
6/2 97" (peak bloom)

Compare this growth to our tallest corpse flower bloom in 2017:

2021 CORPSE FLOWER HEIGHT

06/14 50" (spadix first visible)
06/15 54"
06/16 62"
06/17 67.5"
06/18 72.5"
06/19 79"
06/20 84.5"
06/21 89.5"
06/22 94.5"
06/23 95.5"
06/24 97.5" - peak bloom
06/26 99" - pollen collected for conservation work