NSU Faculty Await Bloom of Giant Corpse Flower Mr. Stinky
By Leah Jackson
Natchitoches Times
Northwestern State University’s sculpture yard might be mistaken for a Little Shop of Horrors this week as faculty await the bloom of a giant corpse flower, a rare and attractive tropical plant named for the rotten-meat stench its bloom produces.
The corpse flower, amorphophallus titanium or titan arum, is a single inflorescence that can grow to nine feet or more. It only flowers once every seven or eight years and only three to five blooming events from plants grown in cultivation happen worldwide each year. Native to Sumatra, Indonesia, the plant flowers infrequently in the wild and even more rarely when cultivated.