Seven Bizarre Stinking Flowers
Usually flowers give good scent and many people like them because of their fragrance. But some flowers give foul and bad odor to attract beetles, flies etc. Here are such flowers.
Amorphophallus titanum (Corpse flower)
Image credit: Mimifroufrou
Corpse flower is native to Sumatra Islands. It is believed to be the largest flower in the world with 2.11 meter tall. Often this flower grows more than 25 feet long. The weight of this flower is 80 kilograms. It smells like decomposing mammal.
Hydnora Africana (Hydnoraceae)
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Hydnora Africana is native to Southern Africa. This parasitic plant grows underground, but the flower emerges above the ground. This flower emits an odor of feces to attract dung beetles, carrion beetles etc.
Helicodiceros muscivorus (Dead Horse Arum Lily)
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Dead Horse Arum Lily is native to the north-western Mediterranean region. This flower has an unpleasant odor of rotting meat. This has a rare feature of raising its temperature by thermogenesis.
Dracunculus vulgaris (Dragon Arum)
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Dragon Arum is native to Greece, Balkans, Crete and Aegean Islands. This flowers smells like rotting flesh. This has large spathe and spadix.
Rafflesia arnoldii
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rafflesia is native to Sumatra and Borneo Islands. This is the largest individual flower. This flower can grow three feet across and weighs more than 10 kilograms. It smells like rotting flesh. Another interesting feature of this plant is, it has no leaves, stems and roots.
Stapelia
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Stapelia is widely prevalent in South Africa. This flower is hairy textured and emits the smell of rotten flesh to attract the blow flies.
Huernia
Image credit: Home.quicknet
Huernia is native to Eastern and South Africa. The flowers of this species are funnel or bell shaped. They emit the odor of dead flesh to attract flies.
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25 Responses to “Seven Bizarre Stinking Flowers”
On October 16, 2008 at 3:40 am
do they really stink? i think their odor attract insects…
On October 16, 2008 at 6:02 am
Wow..very unusual flowers and some what..smelly
On October 16, 2008 at 7:46 am
Good article in putting these very beautiful looking flowers together.
On October 16, 2008 at 8:05 am
cool…very unique,I ve only heard of a couple of these before…good job…
On October 16, 2008 at 9:46 am
interesting
On October 16, 2008 at 10:08 am
nice photos, wonder why god created these plants.
On October 16, 2008 at 10:21 am
Lovely pics. Too bad they smell bad since they are very nice looking. Thank you for the interesting post
On October 16, 2008 at 12:59 pm
so beautiful….so minky. fab article
On October 16, 2008 at 3:25 pm
wonderful. and to answer #6 …god is just an imaginary friend of yours.
On October 16, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Very beautiful…take care!
On October 16, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Hi Valli,
Although Sumatra and Borneo are parts of my country, I haven’t seen the Raflesia Arnoldi.Interesting article! Thanks
On October 16, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Thank you everybody for reading and commenting.
On October 17, 2008 at 1:28 am
Hey, I always thought Flower and fragrance go together. Well, good information!
On October 17, 2008 at 4:15 am
They may stink, but all of them are still pretty.
On October 17, 2008 at 1:10 pm
they look scary! they remind me of the flowers on jumanji that tried to kill the kids.
On October 17, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Loved the photos!
On October 17, 2008 at 6:51 pm
What a unique article! I have never heard of those flowers before – wow – incredible!
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
On October 17, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Thank you everybody for the nice feedback.
On October 18, 2008 at 8:41 am
How beautiful from a far…lol
On October 18, 2008 at 9:43 am
These are beautiful flowers. Great article.
On October 18, 2008 at 5:56 pm
From here they seem beautiful xD
I prefer staying in home
On November 15, 2008 at 11:00 pm
They look beautiful–too bad they smell like that. Do these flowers eat insects then? Do they eat anything else?
Regards,
Inna
On August 11, 2009 at 10:34 am
o do they really stink?
On September 4, 2009 at 11:44 am
Hi, I live in Chennai (aka Madras in India) and we have a plant with foul-smelling flowers. The flower looks like a miniature version of Dragon Arum (slightly bigger than an Anthurium), the leaves are like those of wild arum and the smell (whew!) is like that of Hydnora Africana. Can anyone tell me what plant it is? We did not plant it; it grew on its own and has multiplied well.
On October 17, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Those are all really interesting looking flowers. I’ve heard of some but not of others. Good information
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