to the titan arum fast enough! Like a ninja in disguise, the plant uses its
odor to fool these insects into coming close. That’s a good thing for the
titan arum because as the bugs explore each f lower, they are actually
pollinating it—transferring pollen from the f lower’s male sex organ, the
anther, to the female sex organ, the pistil.
The flower of the
titan arum smells
like a dead body,
but flies and other
bugs like the smell
and swarm to the
flower to lay their
eggs there. In
the process, they
pollinate the flower.
The corpse f lower isn’t the only putrid-smelling plant in forests
and gardens in Southeast Asia. If you travel throughout Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, or Thailand, you might encounter the
Raff lesia (
Rafflesia arnoldii
). The Raff lesia derives its name from
Thomas Stamford Raff les (1781–1826) a British statesman-explorer
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P. U . , YO U S T I N K !
