Max Thompson, professor of biology and greenhouse supervisor at Southwestern College, has announced that a rare event is going to occur inside the Southwestern College greenhouse.  An Amorphophallus titanium, known as the titan arum or corpse flower, will bloom sometime next week, but likely by Wednesday, June 10.

According to Thompson, only three to four bloom each year in the United States and it is the second largest flower on the planet.  The last time the flower bloomed at Southwestern was in July of 2020.

The Southwestern College Greenhouse will be open daily from 9 a.m., to 4 p.m. for guests to view, and smell, this unique specimen. The greenhouse is located on the north side of campus, north of the Beech Science Center and Mossman Hall.

Southwestern will have a camera set up and will stream video of the event, beginning Monday, June 8. To watch, go to the Southwestern College YouTube channel.  The college will also post updates on its Facebook page about the flower's progress.

According to Thompson, the corpse flower is native to Western Sumatra in Indonesia. This plant gets its name from the odor that emanates from its bloom. The scent is described as the smell of a dead mammal. The odor attracts blowflies and carrion beetles, which the plant uses to pollinate itself. After the flower blooms, it will take 5 to 10 years, for the plant to gather energy to bloom again. To gather this energy, it will shoot up a single leaf that looks like a small tree (up to 15-20 feet tall) to perform photosynthesis.

“It is a rare event to bloom this plant as it takes years for the corm to get large enough to produce a flower,” Thompson says.  “The Southwestern College plant came from a corm from Selby Gardens in Sarasota, Fla.”

The flower typically opens in mid-afternoon and stays open all night, emitting the foul stench to attract flies and beetles to pollinate it. The spadix or center part of the flower only lasts about 24 hours.