‘Wee Stinky’ draws crowds to Cornell – The towering titan arum
(Amorphophallus titanum) attracted about 10,000 visits, including more than 3,500 on March 19 alone. Read more in the Cornell Chronicle.
Time lapse:
Shows two days — opening and closing — plus collapse of spadix three days later.
The spadix collapsed on March 22, 2012. Don’t fret. Ph.D. candidate Gwynne Lim told me early that day that it was hollow and could go over anytime. “We went to the greenhouse early this afternoon and the appendix was ripping at the seams just above the male flowers,” says Lim. “It looks so sad.” View the 7-hour collapse in 30 seconds below or on YouTube.
From CornellCast:
- Titan arum blooms at Cornell (high angle view)
- Titan arum blooms at Cornell (low angle view)
Live feeds:
(Updated March 24 6:30 a.m.) I pulled the Ustream feed at the end of the day March 23. The single frame feed has returned to the flower bulb research greenhouse where you can see a show that rivals the arum. (The blooms last longer and smell better, too.) View the tulipcam page.
Pictures:
Will add more links as they roll in. But if you missed the excitement you can see what happened here:
- Huffington Post slideshow – Must see!
- Titan arum at Cornell University – Cornell Google+ gallery
- Cornell Daily Sun slide show – Article, too.
- Ithaca Journal slideshow – Great article too.
- More images via Google
The greenhouse is no longer open to the public. Thanks to all who stood in line for the chance to see this spectacular plant. Can’t wait to do it again!
‘Wee’ have a winner
The votes have been counted and the Cornell Titan Arum now has a name: Wee Stinky — named for Wee Stinky Glen, a small stream running through campus. (The glen is no longer stinky. More about that under question #2 here.) The official results:
- Big Red 14%
- Uncle Ezra 33%
- Wee Stinky 53%
The basics:
The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is native only to Sumatra. It blooms very infrequently (only 140 times in cultivation since 1889) and then only for one or two nights before collapsing. Until it opens, there’s no noticeable odor. After that there’s little doubt where the name “Corpse Flower” comes from.
This Titan arum is part of the Department of Plant Biology’s Liberty Hyde Bailey Conservatory collection, and is temporarily located in the Kenneth Post Lab Greenhouses.
The background:
- Titan arum factsheet.
- Rare ‘corpse plant’ preparing to bloom on campus [Cornell Chronicle, 3/13/2012]
- Growth chart – Track the plants recent growth.
See posts below for more information about the research being conducted on the plant, frequently asked questions, and more.
Comments:
Unfortunately, comments are doing strange things to the rest of the page, and we don’t have time at the moment to diagnose the problem. You can leave comments and we’ll read them. (Feel free to ask questions. We’ll try to answer them in posts.) But they won’t appear on the blog. If you’d like to interact, you can comment at Cornell University on Facebook or Google+ posts about the Titan Arum.
Updates:
We’ll be adding blog posts below as time allows to report results on the research and more. Apologies we weren’t able to do more in real time, but we were overwhelmed by the crowds and interest in this incredible plant.