What's That Smell?!

We’ve all had this happen to us - we take a bite out of something that doesn’t taste quite right, or we open up the milk and it smells off. What’s one of the first things you do? For me, it’s to immediately turn to my nearest friend and urge them to either taste or smell the item in question. I know I’m not alone in this (now if someone can please tell my family that!), and that was definitely confirmed for me today.

Over the last week or so, I noticed one of our more unique plants begin to flower. Amorphophallus henryi or voodoo lily was gifted to us from our friends at Moore Farms Botanical Garden and has been housed in our shade nursery. When I saw a curious protrusion coming from its pot, I knew a flower was soon to follow. Over the course of about a week, it fully opened and we were able to bask in all of its putrid glory.

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This unique plant is related to a plant you may have heard of before: corpse flower. Amorphophallus titanum, although sadly not in our collection, is one of those plants you hear about in the news when it flowers, as its flowering is very infrequent and finishes fast. As the name would imply, this is not a nice smelling flower. It has been likened to rotting meat. Luckily for us, our voodoo lily shares a similar smell!

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I was so delighted to share this with my fellow Brookgreen staff! My first thought was to place it on the break table so everyone could enjoy. Then I realized just how potent the smell was. To give you an idea, you could be standing a few feet away and still smell it. I was pretty certain I would stink out the whole building. Instead, the people came to the flower!

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With the help of Katherine Rowe, the Director of Horticulture, we set out to share our botanical oddity. We visited the Public Exhibits, Facilities and Maintenance, Wildlife, and Horticulture staff throughout the building. Their reactions ranged from appearing fairly unaffected, to being downright disgusted.

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After we had our fun with the staff, we moved the voodoo lily out to where it could garner some more attention: in the gardens! Since we do not currently have these planted out in our gardens, we have placed it in the best spot we could think of: at the What’s in Bloom table at the Welcome Center.

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Something else that makes this plant so unique is how it is pollinated. While we often think of pollinators as being bees and butterflies, there are a number of other insects (and even wind!) that can also act as a pollinator. In the case of the voodoo lily, it attracts flies and beetles with its odor and those in turn act as its pollinator. Isn’t nature great?