The endangered corpse flower has gained a new family after a pair of the rare plants flowered at the same time earlier this year.
According to The Mainichi, this couple produces the world’s largest flower and recently produced 736 bright red fruits.
If these all germinate properly this month, the corpse flower’s future will bloom with hundreds of new sprouts.
These plants grow on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and stand nearly nine feet tall and over 1 foot wide.
Due to the plant’s inability to self-pollinate and resistance to artificial pollination, the corpse flower’s future has been looking grim.
Head researcher Chie Tsutsumi at Tsukuba Botanical Garden in Japan stated, “We don’t know why, whether pollination can’t occur with pollen from this one plant, or whether pollen has a limited shelf life.”
The Tsukuba Botanical Garden houses 10 different corpse flower plants, but only one had bloomed since 2012 until earlier this year a small one bloomed and Tsutsumi and two other scientists collected pollen samples.
Then, eight days later, a larger one bloomed and they were able to help pollinate the plant.
“It’s amazing that these fickle plants bloomed at the same time,” Tsutsumi said.
Despite the occasion being celebrated, the pollination process causes the corpse flower to emit a foul odor that appeals to carrion beetles, which are good pollinators for the plant.
The scientists had to work through the awful stench and wait until June when the blooms swelled, indicating success.
Now, the fruits are fully developed and measure about 4 centimeters in diameter. Each fruit contains up to three seeds which have been harvested and amounted to hundreds of seeds being produced for planting.
Tsutsumi noted, “It was the first time this had happened in Japan, so we were happy.”
