Sunday, June 9, 2013

Amorphophallus paeoniifolius

I know this blog is supposed to be about wood working and honey bees but I just had to share a photo of a plant that I have grown for years and never saw it in bloom.  Ordinarily my Amorphophallus just puts out a vegetative form that emerges from the ground then withers and dies.  But this year these large alien looking growths came up.  After a few weeks they began to open to reveal a most unusual flower.

This flower has the aroma of rotting flesh and is starting to attract flies and ants.  The central portion is about the size of a cabbage.  It appears to have yellow pollen on the interior portion of the stalk.

Here's a photo of all three stages of growth.  An unopened bud on the left, two flowers that have already opened, and the green vegetative growth starting to open up on the right.

6 comments:

  1. Is the plant still growing? This plant is a tube that is prized for medicinal properties.If you have any tubers and are willing to sell them,let me know.

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  2. Jaye,
    This plant is in my garden and I get the vegetative growth each year but this is the first year it flowered. I'm sure there would be tubers underground if you are interested in one I could dig it up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. My father has one in his yard, it flowered a week ago.

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  4. Can you send me your contacts to arudrayoga@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fascinatingly beautiful and ugly simultaneously!!

    ReplyDelete

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