Page 5 - Ninja Plants: Survival and Adaptation in the Plant World

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.

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 flower, they are actually
pollinating it—transferring pollen from the flower’s male sex organ, the
anther, to the female sex organ, the pistil.
The corpse flower 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
Rafflesia (Rafflesia arnoldii). The Rafflesia derives its name from
Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781–1826) a British statesman-explorer

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P. U . , Y O U S T I N K !