This Year's Corpse Flower at UConn is a Dud

Turns out the long-awaited Corpse Flower at The University of Connecticut's Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Plant Growth Facilities met a sad end and failed to bloom.

The news was posted just after noon on Facebook by Clinton Morse, plant growth facilities manager at UConn, who admitted the news was a letdown.

"Bad news folks - looks like this year's Corpse Flower bud has aborted. I came in this AM to find part of the spathe pulled away a little bit and a faint 'past-due' odor."

The reason? "Could be any number of reasons, but we'd just be guessing... These things happen ....  We have plenty more 'waiting in the wings', though it will likely be a few years before the next opportunity."

Good morning, after stalling for a couple days, it appears that our Corpse Flower has aborted for 2013. A portion of the spathe was pulled away slightly this AM and a stale odor reminiscent of a past bloom was emanating from the bud.

We're here anyway today, so the TLS greenhouses will be open this afternoon for anyone that wants to come up and take a look at the 1000's of other plants on display (or pay respects to our aborted Corpse Flower).

We do have a couple primitive Welwitschia plants (male & female) producing cones this week.  And the usual assortment of carnivores, desert plants, tropicals and so forth.

Original Story

By Clinton Morse, plant growth facilities manager at UConn

Is today the day?

The University of Connecticut's Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Plant Growth Facilities reports the latest Corpse Flower is poised to bloom any day. This is the world's largest un-branched inflorescence and is renowned for both its size and putrescent odor — akin to a rotting corpse.

Friday morning the update on the website was hopeful: "Corpse Flower update: Very minor changes, still 143cm. We continue to watch and wait... and wait..."

The last Facebook Post about the flowering plant native to the rainforests of Sumatra says staff are still waiting on the Titan Arum. The blooms open at night and remain in good condition for less than 24 hours.

Staff will only know for certain when it's opening mid- to late-afternoon of the day itself. Whenever that happens, there will be notices on Facebook nd the greenhouse will stay open for visitors until midnight or so.

When it blooms, there will be a pretty brief window of opportunity to experience it — it will begin opening in late afternoon and reach its peak during the early evening hours, by the following day it will have quickly gone past its prime and will senesce within about 36-48 hours.

The greenhouses will be open late (at least midnight) on whatever night it decides to open. Stay on top of the latest flowering status by liking us on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/UCONN-Ecology-Evolutionary-Biology-Plant-Growth-Facilities/1217697955...

The greenhouse is located on the main campus of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, behind the Biology/Physics Building.

The facility is open to the public Monday thru Friday from 8 AM until 4 PM. We are closed weekends and most state holidays.

Parking is limited on the Storrs campus and we advise visitors to park in theNorth Parking Garage. Upon exiting the garage, walk along Auditorium Road past the Jorgensen Auditorium and past the Biology/Physics Building. Enter via the door on the east side of the greenhouses, or you may enter through the garden during warm weather.