Page 4 - Ninja Plants: Survival and Adaptation in the Plant World

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P.U., YOU

STINK!

IMAGINE YOU ARE HIKING THROUGH A
TROPICAL FOREST WHEN SUDDENLY YOU GET A
BIG WHIFF OF SOMETHING NASTY.

You sniff under your arms. Not you. Then you lean over and sniff at
your best friend because, let’s face it, it really could be him. But alas, it’s
not your best friend either. What can be causing this offensive odor? It’s
the stinkiest, smelliest, most malodorous plant in the forest—the carrion
flower. And you’ve just rubbed up against it. Ewww!
The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanium) is native to Sumatra, an
island in Indonesia in Southeast Asia. This flower is also known as the
carrion, or corpse, flower because it smells like the rotting flesh of a
dead and decaying body. Although it looks like one, single flower, it is
actually a cluster of flowers on a stalk, together called an inflorescence.
The inflorescence’s disgusting smell might prevent most animals from
approaching the flowers to eat them—and will certainly keep away most
sane people. Carrion flies and beetles, however, are attracted to the smell
of rotting, dead animals, on which they lay their eggs. They can’t race

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N I NJ A P L AN T S