‘Wee Stinky’ — one of two flowering-sized Titan arums (Amorphophallus titanum) in the Conservatory’s collection — has broken dormancy and is beginning its vegetative stage.
It’s not flowering, but sending up the single leaf (already more than 4 feet tall and growing 2 to 3 inches a day) that will top out near the rafters in the Conservatory’s Palm House.
For a year or more, the leaf will convert the sun’s energy through photosynthesis into starches stored in the arum’s underground corm to fuel the next flowering.
You can view the expanding leaf in the Palm House near the doorway to the Student House.
View time-lapse video from the last time ‘Wee Stinky’ flowered in October 2016.
Learn more about the lifecycle of Titan arums at Cornell’s Titan arum website.