Corpse Flower: Amorphophallus Titanum Blooms in Berkeley

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Rare Corpse Flower Blooms in Berkeley

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Amorphophallus Titanum Blooms for First Time in 15 Years

The Amorphophallus titanum (also called the titan arum or corpse flower) is ugly. Some may even say "fugly". It looks like male genitalia (Amorphophallus titanum means "misshapen penis"). It smells like rotten liver, and is pollinated by flies and beetles attracted to its stench. The titan arum also only blooms very rarely, and Berkeley, California residents and visitors can see it happen. Maladora, in the care of the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens, is in bloom.

So rare is the corpse flower's blooming that it tends to make headlines wherever it occurs.

• Corpse Flower Blooms, Huntington Botanical Gardens: Video, Photos
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• Stinky Flower Set to Bloom in San Francisco

The plant (often misspelled as "Amorphophallus titanium") grows up to 20 feet high and 16 feet across, and, in bloom, gives off as much heat as a human body.

The titan arum (a name invented by David Attenborough for The Private Life of Plants) grows only in Sumatra, but also exists in botanical gardens around the world, where it blooms even more rarely than in the wild.

You can buy cuttings of the plant, but, funnily enough, not that many people want that smell in their own homes, even if the blooming occurs every few years.