Reuters AlertNet Lite - Warm weather prompts Corpse Flower to bloom early

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Warm weather prompts Corpse Flower to bloom early

05 Feb 2007 18:08:59 GMT
Source: Reuters

LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Unseasonably warm weather may have tricked the world's smelliest plant into blooming in the middle of the northern hemisphere winter, botanists at the Eden Project where the native of Sumatra is housed, told Reuters.

The warmth of 2006 and mild winter to date have encouraged the Titan Arum or Corpse Flower into a phenomenal growth spurt and into flower -- an event that usually happens only once every six to nine years.

"The Titan, standing at 164 cms tall is now giving off a revolting stink," said curator Don Murray. "It is a cross between rotten cheese, dog poo and something dead."

"Tonight the flowers will be in full bloom -- as will the stench -- and that will last through Tuesday and Wednesday. But by Thursday it will have started to die back," he told Reuters from the project in Cornwall 220 miles southwest of London.

Murray said it was highly abnormal for the plant to flower in winter.

"Last year's unprecedented warm temperatures and high sunshine levels and the extremely mild winter we are currently experiencing have to be considered as a factor in this rare occurrence," he said.

The Corpse Flower is a native of central Sumatra and it uses its pungent attraction to entice the insects it needs for pollination.

The insects dive into the honeycomb-like stem that houses the flowers where they become trapped and covered in the plant's pollen.

After its brief but olfactorily memorable appearance the whole structure dies back, releasing the insects while the corm of the plant lying under the ground rests while it gathers the energy it will need to surge back into visible and pungent life.

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Last updated:Mon Feb 5 18:09:12 2007