Monday, June 23, 2008 11:51 AM CDT
Rare plant blooms at Eastern
More than 1,000 have seen 'corpse flower' so far
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfoppay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Anything that’s called a “corpse flower” because of its odor is bound to smell bad, but the scent’s worth tolerating because the sight’s worth seeing.
Just ask the more than 1,000 people who’d been through the Thut Greenhouse at Eastern Illinois University by Sunday morning to see the rare bloom of the 5-foot-tall Titan Arum, an Indonesian species that takes five to seven years to bloom and smells like rotten eggs when it does.
About a week ago, EIU officials announced that the flower was entering its blooming phase, and had updates and pictures on a Web site, www.eiu.edu/~biology/news/titan_arum.htm. That led several people to make sometimes daily trips to the greenhouse to see if the large bloom had opened yet.
“I’ve been walking by every day to watch its progress,” Bob Sonderman, a Washington, D.C., resident who’s in Charleston visiting relatives, said Sunday morning. “It’s gorgeous.”
Sonderman said he understood the draw the plant has. He saw another specimen on display in Washington and “it was a big deal,” he said.
Greenhouse Manager Steven Malehorn grew the Titan Arum from a seed that EIU obtained from the University of Wisconsin in 2001. He said the bloom peaked Saturday night and the bloom usually lasts about 30 hours.
“After today, they will see it slumping,” he said Sunday. “The entire flower will slowly collapse by Sunday evening.”
He said there were more than 1,000 visitors to the greenhouse Saturday and he expected about 2,000 on Sunday.
Mike and Debra Sullivan made their third trip of the week to the greenhouse Sunday and kept coming because of “the rarity” of the opportunity, Mike Sullivan said.
“It’s amazing,” Debra Sullivan added. “You don’t get to see this all the time.”
Susan Knutson of Tucson, Ariz., was another person visiting her hometown who coupled checks on the plant with time visiting relatives.
“I’ve been waiting for three days,” she said. “It’s very interesting, but it is stinky.”
Malehorn said the plant’s odor was strongest during nighttime hours Saturday. The odor is thought to be for attracting insects to help the plant pollinate, and it mostly draws nocturnal bugs, he explained.
He also said the flower can live for “decades” and he hopes it doesn’t take another seven years before it blooms again.
“Each plan has its own personality,” he said. “It can flower every two to three years or five to seven years or 10 years.”
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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