New corpse flower, cousin to ‘Putrella’, set to bloom at Muttart

CTV Edmonton: Corpse flower about to bloom The world's smelliest flower is set to bloom in Edmonton.

Years after a corpse flower dubbed Putrella bloomed for the first time at the Muttart Conservatory, officials said that flower’s younger relative is set to make an entrance of its own.

In a Facebook post on the Muttart Conservatory’s page, officials said one of the facility’s younger amorphophallus titanum plants, also called the corpse flower, was set to bloom.

The post said this particular bloom is the younger cousin of Putrella. That corpse flower bloomed for the first time in 2013.

At the time, officials at the Muttart said it was the only one in western Canada.

This new bloom is from a plant that is about eight years old, and is expected to be smaller than Putrella’s bloom (that flower measured 244 cm (8’) tall), but still on the taller side, between 152 cm (5’) and 213 cm (7’) tall.

The plant is currently 162.5 cm (5’4”) tall. It isn’t clear when it could bloom.

Back in 2013, Muttart extended its hours to allow more people to see (and smell) the rare flower. The bloom emits an odour similar to the smell of rotting meat.