It has a strategy, and its female flowers do most of the work
During Cosmo’s bloom, Colorado State University Plant Growth Facilities manager Tammy Brenner points toward the inside of the spathe, the large outer sheath that opens. Just below her hand is the floral chamber, where rows of tiny female and male flowers were blooming. They aren’t easy to see from outside, but the smell is impossible to miss.
JOHN EISELE/Colorado State University
An endangered plant known as the "corpse flower" for its putrid stink is about to bloom at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia on Jan. 23.
RICK RYCROFT/AP photo
Each corpse plant has both male (yellow) and female (red) flowers. The female flowers bloom first to attract pollinators coming from other corpse flowers. The next day, the male flowers bloom, providing pollen for flies and beetles to carry away to the next plant. The thin, yellow strands are pollen.
JOHN EISELE/Colorado State University
Sometimes, doing research stinks. Quite literally.
Corpse plants are rare, and seeing one bloom is even rarer. They open once every seven to 10 years, and the blooms last just two nights. But those blooms — red, gorgeous and massive at over 10 feet tall — stink. Think rotting flesh or decaying fish.
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