‘Carolus’ stood more than 70 inches on June 12. The Titan Arum’s sibling ‘Wee Stinky’ was 76 inches tall when it last flowered in November 2014.
Following the 2012 and 2014 blooms of Cornell’s Titan Arum ‘Wee Stinky’, a second Titan Arum in the Liberty Hyde Bailey Conservatory collection is poised to bloom. As of Friday morning, the inflorescence stood more than 70 inches tall, and has been growing rapidly. (See Growth Chart.) But the precise time of flowering is difficult to predict.
“When ‘Wee Stinky’ flowered in November 2014, it was 76 inches tall,” said Andrew Leed, greenhouse manager for the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (CUAES). “Even though we’ve learned a lot from two previous flowerings, this is a different plant, the greenhouse is warmer and the weather is sunnier. Things could move faster this time.”
The underground corm that the Titan Arum grows from weighed 55 pounds when it was potted last fall – about 10 percent larger than ‘Wee Stinky’. Flowering time is brief – usually about two days – during which time the bloom emits a powerful scent that smells like rotting meat to attract carrion flies and other insects that spread pollen to other Titan Arums.
This sibling of ‘Wee Stinky’ has been named ‘Carolus’ after Carolus Linnæus, the 18th Century Swedish botanist who laid the foundations of the modern biological naming system known as binomial nomenclature. “It’s also in honor of Carol Bader, the greenhouse grower who nurtured these plants for nearly ten years, but passed away before they bloomed,” says Ed Cobb, research support specialist in the Plant Biology Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science.
Visiting
Many of our student researchers are gone for the summer, and greenhouse staff is currently short-handed and busy preparing to move the plants in the Liberty Hyde Bailey Collection to the new conservatory outside the Plant Science Building.
If you do visit the Kenneth Post Laboratory Greenhouses for a self-guided tour, please enter through the Tower Road doors and be respectful of greenhouse staff members’ time.
Greenhouse CLOSED to the public:
Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14
Greenhouse OPEN to the public:
Monday, June 15 to Friday, June 19 — 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Hours may be extended during bloom time. Check back for updates.