Prepare for “Wow!”

Yesterday we moved our first titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum), “Spike,” to the Semitropical Greenhouse. Now we are all watching and waiting for Spike to bloom—a dream of the Chicago Botanic Garden for 12 years! Finally, in the next ten days or so, we’ll see the fruit of our labor in all of its stinky glory.

PHOTO: Meet Spike, our titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum).
Meet Spike, our titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum). We expect great things from this magnificent plant.

What’s next, and when?

Over the next several days, Spike will grow taller—some days, a barely noticeable inch, and other days, a remarkable 4 or 5 inches. Below the soil is a giant corm, which is a type of underground tuber or bulb (some can weight up to 200 pounds). The titan arum bloom has previously gone through three to ten annual cycles of emerging as a leafy stalk, dying back, and sending that energy back into the corm, which began as a germinated seed about the size of a quarter. 

Big bloom!

While it will look like Spike is a 6- to 8-foot-tall flower, what you will see is actually a tall spadix (flower structure) wrapped by a spathe (a frilly modified leaf). Over the next week, the spadix will emerge out of the top of the bud and continue to grow taller, until it’s time for the bloom. For a single day, the spathe will unwrap and open to a dark, velvety red “bloom,” closing again roughly 24 hours later. 

Big stench. No, really.

Inside the tightly wrapped spathe, the plant uses stored energy from the corm to heat up internally to 90+ degrees Fahrenheit. As the spathe opens, the 750 small female flowers ringing the bottom of the spadix release scent molecules that are volatilized (vaporized) by the heat, creating a blast of scent so powerful that it can travel an acre (or the distance between individual plants in their native Sumatran rain forests). The scent is a calling card for pollinators. 

PHOTO: The spathe of the Amorphophallus titanum unwraps from the spadix at bloom time.
The spathe unwraps from the spadix at bloom time. Photo by Elke Wetzig (elya) (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

What does Spike smell like? Chemically, the scent is a combination of dimethyl trisulfide, isovaleric acid, dimethyl disulfide, and trimethylamine—or, as our friends at Huntington Botanic Gardens described it, “a combination of limburger cheese, garlic, rotting fish, and smelly feet.”

The titan arum will be worth the wait! (Follow our #CBGSpike)

This is yet another “Wow!” produced by our production greenhouse staff for our visitors to rave about. 

Other Chicago Botanic Garden “Wows”:

  • More than 180,000 colorful and bountiful annuals and vegetables produced for displays throughout the Garden
  • The stunning and dramatic cascading chrysanthemums seen atop the bridge at the Visitor Center each fall, and the nearly 100 or so chrysanthemum “balls” we create every year for display in the Esplanade
  • The 10-foot-tall floral pyramids and blooming obelisks created to enhance seasonal displays

But Spike is the most distinguished of them all.

When Spike is ready to bloom, the Chicago Botanic Garden will stay open until 2 a.m., so everyone will have a chance to take in the odor and the remarkable color of the world’s largest unbranched inflorescence—a “Wow!” indeed.ILLUSTRATION: Blooming corpse flower.


©2015 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org

What’s that smell?

In gardening, as in life, patience is a virtue. Twelve years ago, the Garden embarked on a mission to bring a rock star of the plant world to the Chicago Botanic Garden. The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum), also known as the corpse flower, is the largest flowering structure in the world. When it blooms, it puts on a show like no other. 

Huge. Rotten. Rare. Watch our video on YouTube of Spike moving to his display location.

Why the big stink? During the peak of its bloom, which could happen in the next two weeks, the titan arum will emit a foul odor that pollinators can detect from about an acre away. Who would want to miss that?

PHOTO: Checking in on the progress of the titan arum, or corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum).
Checking in on the progress of the titan arum, or corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum)

Native to the rainforests of western Sumatra, Indonesia, the titan arum is distinguished by its large size, odd shape, and terrible stench (hence its common name, corpse flower). Plants bloom for a single day every seven to ten years, and it is nearly impossible to predict the day it will be at the peak of bloom. When those magical hours finally occur, the bloom unfurls into a dramatic, blood red “flower” with a nauseating stench that can be detected up to an acre away. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

We have been cultivating eight of these mysterious plants behind the scenes in the production greenhouses, watching them grow foliage each year, and guessing what a flower might look like as it emerges.

Today we are so excited to be moving Spike to the Semitropical Greenhouse in the Regenstein Center. (We have named our titan arum Spike because when you grow a plant for 12 years, you start to think of it as a child.) Spike is growing several inches every day. We are so proud of Spike and are also thrilled he is the first titan arum to bloom in the Chicago area.

Come welcome Spike, and join the countdown to the big bloom! If you do, let us know what you think in comments here, via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Tumblr. Use the hashtag #CBGSpike and our handle @chicagobotanic


©2015 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org