COLUMBUS – The watch is on as two “corpse flowers” prepare to burst forth in all their smelly splendor at OSU.
Two titan arums are expected to bloom any day now at the Ohio State University Biological Sciences Greenhouse.
Titan arums are among the largest flowers in the world and release a smell like garbage or rotting flesh when they bloom, which they do (thank goodness!) very rarely, hence their nickname: corpse flower.
Titan arums are native to Indonesia and Sumatra and OSU started growing them in 2001.
The four at the greenhouse are named for Ohio State icons: Woody (pictured above), Jesse, Scarlet and Maudine
What a minute…Maudine???
Maudine Ormsby was the 1926 OSU homecoming queen. She was the first runner-up but won the title due to a ballot box-stuffing scandal involving the winner. Maudine, the entry of some agriculture students, was a cow.
The bloom of the titan arum is typically between 6 and 8 feet tall and uses the scent of rotting flesh to attract flies and other pollinators, according to the greenhouse’s website
Scarlet produced the most recent bloom, in August 2013.