My New Favourite Plants

[JimW]

I got these tubers back in June...

Amorphophallus konjac, the Voodoo Lily and Amorphophallus henryi, Henry's Voodoo Lily. These two plants are closely related to the Corpse Flower, Amorphophallus titanum.

They are tropical plants but die off at the end of the growing season, sprouting again next spring, each year the tuber gets bigger and produces small side tubers. Eventually after several years if you are lucky enough the plant will produce a single large flower that only lasts a few days, which is not a bad thing as the flower is normally pollenated by carrion flies, so the flower smells like rotten flesh.

Two of the 4 plants have died off, the other 2 still hanging on alive but starting to yellow. I will overwinter the tubers in dry potting soil and replant them in larger pots in early Spring.

The one species, Amorphophallus konjac, is used to make Shirataki noodles.

JimW

[Epona]

What unique plants....to be admired at a distance

[labradors]

When I was a kid, we moved to a "new" house. The neighbour was a fisherman and my mother was always complaining about the terrible stink in the summer time, and thought it was because he was gutting his fish outside. Turns out that it was some lillies in OUR garden emitting a horrendous stench .

Linda

[JimW]

What unique plants....to be admired at a distance

Haha the plants themselves do not smell just the flower, which the plant needs to be usually around 4-5 years old to flower and the flower only lasts a couple days.