BLACKSBURG, Va. – The corpse flower could bloom again soon, according to Jeff Burr, greenhouse manager in the School of Plant and Environment Sciences at Virginia Tech.
They’ve nicknamed the flower “Stinky Phil” and it has a very putrid odor.
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On April 22, Burr noticed the plant emerging from the soil. Under typical weather conditions, Stinky Phil would already have bloomed, but extended cold and rain in May elongated the cycle.
Once the plant started growing, it grew quickly at a rate of about 3 inches each day.
“The excitement and buzz surrounding a bloom are immense,” Burr said. “Not all blooms are equal – some smell a lot stronger than others. In 2015, you had to get right up to it and take a whiff, but once you did, it gagged you. I’m looking forward to seeing – and smelling – this bloom.”
When it last bloomed five years ago, nearly 1,000 people stuck their nose in Phil to get a whiff of his nastiness.
They plan to livestream when it gets close to the blooming phase here.
Stinky Phil has been at Virginia Tech since the late 1990s, and this will be his fifth bloom since arriving in Blacksburg.
Virginia Tech says the 2013 bloom was particularly putrid, caused by the burning of the stored carbohydrates. As the flower burns the carbohydrates, it short-circuits itself and burns the stored energy in overdrive. As the plant does this, it volatilizes sulfur compounds, which smell similar to rotting meat, attracting flies and beetles. Once the plant reaches the smelly, flowering stages, it lasts only for about 24 hours before it goes back into the ground.
Once the plant has enough energy, it will emerge from the ground and begin the flowering phase. Until the plant reaches a certain height, it’s difficult to tell if it will be a leaf or flower phase.
In all, the time it takes for the corpse flower to grow, flower, and become a corm again is around 30 days.
“The interesting thing about the plant is it’s strange. You don’t have to be a plant person to be interested in the unusual,” said Burr. “It’s a Little Shop of Horrors.”