A Corpse Stinks in Brooklyn

For a few days last week, anyone passing within a half-mile of New York City’s Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) on Washington Avenue might have picked up the criminous scent of a corpse flower preparing to bloom: the first such event in the borough in 67 years.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s titan arum--Latin name Amorphophallus titanum, but known as “Baby” by her handlers--first came to the Garden in 1996 from a commercial grower in Raleigh, North Carolina. A decade later--and thanks to her team’s full attention--Baby has finally bloomed. You can read the history of this corpse flower on the BBG’s Web site, but you understand one thing very quickly: getting this puppy to bloom is not an easy matter and is, in fact, a big, hairy deal.

The other thing you come to realize is that coaxing the titan arum to flower is not only a tedious business, it’s also a pretty stinky affair. The plant comes by its common name--corpse flower--honestly. As it approaches full bloom, the titan arum gives off a smell roughly akin to the mature decomposition of the flesh of a large mammal. The odor is so strong, it is said that the illustrator responsible for documenting the first blooming of a cultivated corpse flower at Britain’s Kew Gardens in the late 1800s was made ill by the stench. Understandably, however, the smell is ambrosia to insects who, on the plant’s native island of Sumatra, would hurry to get their share of a perceived feast, thereby aiding in the pollination process. In captivity--at least in Brooklyn--this pollination is handled by humans, as illustrated above.

According to the Worcester Telegram, this is the first time a corpse flower has bloomed in Brooklyn since 1939, when it was, for a short time, the borough’s official flower.

Although the dramatic appearance of the stinky bloom is now behind us, the corpse flower is still attracting attention at the BBG. You can join in the fun via the Garden’s Web cam, which updates its image every minute and frequently catches visitors sniffing the air in the corpse flower’s immediate vicinity.