A rare giant flower known for its scent of rotting flesh is expected to bloom for just two days in the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden near Adelaide
The Amorphophallus titanum, or more commonly known as the Corpse Flower, has been growing in the garden's nursery for about a decade and is finally having its growth spurt before its flower opens.
This plant is native to Sumatra and in the wild the plant needed to be cross pollinated by bees, which could bring pollen from another flower three or four kilometres away.
"Once the flower is open, it will open for 24 to 36 hours, That's when it will exude its smell for that time period. It puts all this energy into one event, it grows for 10 years and basically only opens for two days."
It is believed to be the first time the species has flowered in South Australia.
The smell is purely for the survival of the plant species ... it is quite vulnerable in the wild from deforestation and over-collection.
Gardens staff hope to collect pollen by hand this year to be used in the pollination of the species in coming years.
"We put [the pollen] in cold storage, putting it in cold storage it can last for quite a few years," Mr Coulter said.
"Quite a few botanic gardens worldwide do this but we have worked out how to propagate this plant by leaf cuttings and from three original seed that was donated to us, and by doing it by cuttings we have more than 100 plants now of this one species."
Nature is great!
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Topic: Rare Corpse Flower set to open for first time in 10 years (Read 4754 times)