Rare corpse flower says hello, goodbye

Bridget Vis, The Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption 'Corpse flower' blooms A Titan Arum "corpse flower" blooms once every 30 years, smells awful them dies.

Thousands came to Ohio to see a rare Titan Arum flower

Fewer than 200 have bloomed in cultivation and Ohio is home to only three other such flowers

Its common name is the corpse flower because it smells like rotten flesh when it opens up

OXFORD, Ohio -- Jack Keegan got his first break in hours from a steady stream of visitors on Wednesday.

"It's been crazy," said Keegan, greenhouse manager and Miami University instructor, of the 2,000 people that came to see his rare Titan Arum flower, which bloomed for the first time in 12 years Tuesday night.

"We've had people from all over the world come, and it seems like the whole town is talking about it."

That's because the Titan Arum flower is not only rare – fewer than 200 have bloomed in cultivation and Ohio is home to only three other such flowers – but it's huge – 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

Its common name is the corpse flower because it smells like rotten flesh when it opens up.

"I didn't know we had anything like this at Miami," said Bryan Powell, who works at the university and brought his 3-year-old son along to see the flower. "I can't believe how big it is or how much it smells."

Like Powell, Jamie Bercaw-Anzano of Oxford couldn't pass up the chance to see such a rarity.

"I'm really honored to have had the opportunity to view something so rare," she said. "If you can get past the smell, it really is beautiful in an odd way."

Keegan, 61, is also very pleased with his giant indigo flower. After days of anticipation, he's glad it finally opened for him to see.

"Not knowing when it was going to bloom was the hardest part," he said.

To monitor the flower's progress, Keegan kept a webcam on it and streamed the feed online.

"We got over 7,000 unique hits and 100,000 views," he said. "I didn't expect numbers anywhere close to that."

The flower, which was fully open by 9 p.m. Tuesday, only bloomed for 12 hours, reaching a temperature of near 100 degrees at its height.

"The heat amplifies its smell to attract flies and carrion beetles to pollinate it," said Keegan, who chose not to pollinate his flower this time because he thought it wasn't large enough. "Afterward the flower begins to close in and it will eventually collapse."

He said the plant's corm (or storage organ), which can weigh up to 25 pounds, will not die.

"When Titan Arums don't produce flowers, they produce leaves that look like nothing like the flower," Keegan said. An individual plant keeps producing a bigger leaf each year until they reach around 15 feet after about seven years, and then the next year may produce a flower.

Keegan has other Titan Arums in leaf (they don't flower) at the greenhouse and said most people can't believe they were the same plant.

Even though the crowds have died down, Keegan is already thinking about the possibility of his plant producing another flower in another three to five years.