Rare corpse flower plant to bloom for first time at Toronto Zoo

A month earlier, the leaf portion of the plant began to die off and recede into the corm, an underground plant stem. Such plants then produces more leaves or a flower, never both, he said.

But the plant at the zoo showed signs of flowering, despite its young age.

“I was pretty excited,” Gellatly said. “I couldn’t get to my supervisor fast enough to let her know.”

Gellatly said he then sent off numerous pictures to colleagues at the New York Botanical Garden to be sure the plant was about to flower before the zoo went public.

“This is the first one I have seen gone to flower,” he said.

The plant is native to the jungles of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and smells like rotting meat while blooming, which attracts carrion flies and beetles for pollination.

The flower will smell its worst on the first night it blooms, Gellatly said. The flower is threatened in Indonesia and will become the first in the Toronto area to ever bloom, he said.

The zoo has 14 corpse flowers of various ages, but this is among a group of the oldest.

A corpse flower recently bloomed at Edmonton’s Muttart Conservatory. The two have great differences in mass, Gellatly said.

The Toronto Zoo’s corpse flower bulb weighs 24 pounds while Edmonton’s came in at a whopping 200 pounds, he said.

The zoo has dubbed the Toronto plant “Pablo ‘Pe Ew’ Caso” after a naming contest.

It has been moved to one of the zoo’s production greenhouses for display from its usual spot in the Indo-Malaya pavilion and visitor hours will be extended so members of the public can see the pungent plant in bloom.

A corpse flower also bloomed in Vancouver earlier this year.

In July, that plant — dubbed Uncle Fester — flowered at the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park, drawing thousands of visitors.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version incorrectly said the flower was endangered. In fact, it is a threatened plant.

by Canadian Press

Rare corpse flower plant to bloom for first time at Toronto Zoo

What's Trending