08-07-2025
Rare ‘corpse plant' blooms at Austin Peay University drawing visitors
Austin Peay University is home to two extremely rare corpse plants, with fewer than 1,000 existing worldwide. (WTVF via CNN Newsource)
CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee (WTVF) - A botanical rarity is drawing attention at Austin Peay University, where one of the world's most unusual plants is putting on a spectacular but brief show.
Unlike its name, the corpse plant is very alive. But it earned its morbid nickname honestly.
'It's all going to look at smell like rotten flesh,' said Dr. Karen Meisch, Dean of the STEM College at Austin Peay University.
Miesch explained that fewer than a thousand of these plants exist in the world today.
'This is the titan arum normally found or natively found in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra,' she said.
The university houses two corpse plants. These plants take about seven to ten years to bloom, and when they do, the resulting flower only lasts a day or so.
'Athena's outer leaves dropped Sunday morning and they will typically bloom within 2 to 5 days,' Meisch said.
Athena's bloom takes just two weeks to grow from a small sprout into a towering flower, and it won't come back for another two to five years.
'Eventually it will go back 100 percent into the soil and it will be there for about 3-4 months,' Meisch said.
In between flowerings, the plant grows for nine-month periods, falls off, and continues the cycle.
'Even though it looks like a tree it is a single leaf,' Meisch said.
The flower attracts beetles with its pungent smell when it blooms to pollinate.
'The beetles have to find another flower that's in bloom in that 24-hour period,' Meisch said.
This rare bloom reminds us to treasure nature's fleeting wonders.
By Kim Rafferty.
