Grower News

Cornell University has rare titan arum, or corpse flower, plants, and one of them is about to start blooming again. When a titan arum blooms, it “emits a powerful scent that smells like rotting meat to attract carrion flies and other insects that spread pollen to other Titan Arums,” according to Cornell. Carolus in full bloom in 2017. Photo by Jenn Thomas-Murphy, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell CALS. “The flowering is brief – just a day or two – and difficult to predict,” said Paul Cooper, the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station greenhouse grower who cares for the Titan arums and more than 600 other species of plants in the conservatory, in a statement. “But the bloom is nothing if not memorable.” Titan arums also produce the tallest unbranched flowering structure in the plant world, towering higher than 108 inches (9 feet). Cornell says the last time Carolus flowered, it reached 75 inches tall; as of today, it already stood 92 inches – making it the tallest Titan arum ever grown at Cornell – and was growing about five inches a day. “These plants are offering more than a gothic horror story,” Professor Rob Raguso says. “They are showing us what it takes to trap insects and potentially control pests. The plants are already doing it, and doing it extraordinarily well.” A better understanding of the chemicals involved in the flowering process could also have potential benefit for humans, Cornell says. Raguso thinks reverse engineering the plant’s chemical weaponry could help humans in our ongoing battle against pests. This will be only the second time since 2012 – when Carolus’ sibling, Wee Stinky, was the first Titan arum to flower at Cornell – that the plants have bloomed while students are on campus. Conservatory hours are 10am to 3pm weekdays, though Cornell will extend their hours when Carolus actually blooms. “As a bonus, sibling ‘Wee Stinky’ is in full leaf alongside,” they say. Updates and facility hours are available at Cornell’s titan arum website, conservatory.cals.cornell.edu , along with a webcam so you can watch if you can’t visit. […]

Source: www.14850.com