A flower that got its nickname from its putrid smell started to bloom on Friday at Dartmouth College for the first time since 2011.
Named Morphy, the titan arum — or corpse flower — began opening on Friday afternoon at the Ivy League college’s Life Sciences Greenhouse. The 2.3m flower was expected to be fully open yesterday before it starts to collapse today.
Morphy has a long pointy stalk with a skirt-like covering. It is green on the outside and deep red on the inside when it opens.
Dartmouth greenhouse manager Kim DeLong said Morphy was starting to smell like a burning cigar on Friday afternoon.
At full strength, its odor has been described as a cross between a decaying animal and urine.
DeLong said she was planning to pollinate the flower yesterday, using two paintbrushes and tweezers.
“Way down on the bottom, we’re going to cut a hole. It’s not going to hurt the plant. And then we’re going to collect pollen and pollinate the female flowers, and hopefully we’re going to get seeds in a year, once they mature,” DeLong said.
The idea is to share seeds and pollen with other conservatories, parks and greenhouses around the world, she said.
Titan arum is native to Sumatra’s equatorial rain forests and is among the most popular flowers when it blooms.
DeLong said it is endangered because of deforestation to make room for palm oil plantations.
“We want to do what we can to try to save it,” she said.
The greenhouse is open today from 10am to 3pm.
The university provided a link to a live Web cam of Morphy: www.dartmouth.edu/~grnhouse/morphy.html.
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