Corpse flower nears rare third bloom in three years

Titan VanCoug - the corpse flower that's attracted thousands of onlookers to the WSU Vancouver campus with its pungent aroma in recent years - is on the cusp of blooming once again.

This year will be the plant's third odorous emergence in as many years. The frequency of its flowering is exceedingly rare, as mature plants typically flower every four to six years.

It could be that Titan VanCoug is making up for lost time. WSU's plant was a relative late bloomer; while most corpse flowers flower within 7-10 years of germination, it took Titan VanCoug 17 years to do so.

More likely, however, is that Titan VanCoug isn't just one plant, but rather as many as four cohabitating in the same large pot found on the first floor of Vancouver's Science and Engineering Building.

"We don't know what's going on under the dirt," Dawn Freeman, who took over care for Titan in 2020, said. "I was hoping to get in and find out this summer, but because we keep having blooms, so I've had to wait to ensure I'm not disturbing things."

The lifecycle of Earth's largest unbranched inflorescence

Titan VanCoug was first planted in 2002 by Steve Sylvester, an emeritus professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. As the plant grew, it moved from Sylvester's desk to the floor in his office, then down the hall and finally next to a staircase to accommodate its towering leaf stalks.

The corpse flower is technically Earth's largest unbranched inflorescence, which is distinguished by the presence of flower clusters on the base of the plant's stem.

After germinating, corpse flowers sprout a single leaf shoot measuring around six inches tall. That leaf stalk dies back each year, transferring energy to its corm, the core of the plant similar to a tuber. After up to six months of dormancy, a new leaf shoot emerges, growing ever larger each cycle until it stands upwards of 8 feet tall.

After several years, the corm beneath the soil grows large enough that instead of a leaf stalk, a bud emerges. Within about two months of the bud appearing, the corpse flower's spadix - a cone-like structure that contains the male and female flowers at its base - will rise multiple feet in the air within the petal-like structure known as the spathe.

Once bloomed, the odor quickly becomes palpable, the smell often compared to rotting flesh, stinky socks or overpowering garlic. Each plant's specific odor varies with the levels of different chemical compounds found within. Then, within two to three days, the spadix and spathe begin to die back. If successfully pollinated, the plant's bright red fruit mature six to 12 months later. The plant is naturally spread by birds after eating the fruit.

Titan VanCoug's recent successes

Titan VanCoug first bloomed July 15, 2019, prompting an estimated 20,000 people to visit the Vancouver campus. While it was successfully pollinated, the fruit molded, preventing seeds from being collected.

The following year, the plant entered a state of dominancy, right as Freeman became its caretaker.

"The joke was that I killed it in my first year of maintaining it," Freeman chuckled.

In 2022, Titan VanCoug bloomed again. This time, Freeman exposed the spadix where fruit rests to allow for better airflow and applied apple cider vinegar to fight off mold, allowing for the collection of several seeds. In spite of mold challenges last year, one seed from Titan VanCoug was successfully germinated.

Ideally, Freeman would like to make connections with other universities and botanical gardens to distribute seeds from Titan VanCoug. She's also working with the Chicago Botanical Garden to better understand the lineage of WSU's plant. To pollinate Titan VanCoug, Freeman reaches out to other institutions to get pollen from non-relatives, lightly painting the material onto the flowers with sterile paintbrush bristles.

If there are indeed multiple corpse flower corms growing inside the same pot, Freeman would like to separate the plants once in a state of dormancy. A new green house would likely be required to keep all of the plants in Vancouver, but Freeman also likes the idea of getting other campuses their own corpse flowers if they can be properly accommodated.

Pictures of corpse flowers rarely do the delicate-yet-foul-smelling plant justice, Freeman says. In preparation for the bloom, campus staff have set up a livestream of Titan VanCoug on YouTube. More information about the corpse flower's history is available on the WSU Vancouver website.