Renovations credited for ‘corpse flower’ bloom

Credit for the recent flowering of the rare and pungent Titan Arum belongs to the newly restored greenhouse in which it resides, according to the director of greenhouses and botanical gardens at UW–Madison.

“I’m convinced that the Titan flowered because there were no sudden temperature fluctuations,” in the renovated greenhouse, says Mohammed Mehdi Fayyaz, who “adopted” the plant after UW–Madison Botany Department researchers requested seed from Sumatra to study the species.

The state appropriated about $100,000 for the greenhouse renovations in 1999. Fayyaz says most work involved replacing wooden frames with tempered glass and repairing the electrical wiring.

“We are so grateful to be able to make such significant improvements,” Fayyaz says. Wisconsin legislators and Phil Certain, dean of the College of Letters and Science, which administers the botany greenhouses, “have been so supportive,” he adds.

The Titan has been on campus since 1996, enjoying temporary lodgings in the university’s Walnut Street research greenhouses. Fayyaz moved the plant to Birge Hall’s Greenhouse No. 8 when the renovations were finished two years ago.

“The blooming of our Titan resulted from the environmental consistency that the remodeling provided for Greenhouse No. 8,” he says. “Being able to give the Titan its proper environment at all times, was important, of course, but also, the fact that it wasn’t moved from the greenhouse preserved its tuber so it didn’t get damaged.”

Although the flowering Titan has passed its peak, it currently is in the process of producing seeds, as is its “companion” Titan from the University of Connecticut.

“After we harvest the seeds the plant tuber goes through a two- or three-month dormant period, and then will produce a new leaf,” Fayyaz says. “If all goes well, either plant could flower in a few years.”

Does Fayyaz anticipate another Titan phenomenon?

“Well, it’s been wonderful to establish this link between the university and the people of Wisconsin who visited the Titan, and the people of the world who saw it on television” or the live Web site, which logged some 30 million hits. More than 25,000 onlookers saw — and smelled — the Titan in the days leading up to its blooming.

At the moment, though, Fayyaz’s attention has been diverted to the greenhouse next door, a desert environment for succulents like cactl and euphorbs. This summer that facility is undergoing state-financed remodeling.