A titan arum (aka the “corpse flower”) blooming at Australia’s Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is making headlines. These putrid plants bloom infrequently and unpredictably, so it’s kind of a big deal.
But did you know Madison has had its fair share of corpse flower blooms?
Campus corpse (flower)
On June 7, 2001, this flower bloomed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Botany Greenhouse. The plant, nicknamed “Big Bucky” reached a gargantuan size of 8 ft 5 inches before collapsing on June 12.
The Botany Garden and Greenhouse is home to several corpse flowers of various ages. Visit these foul flowers Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Odor at Olbrich
Olbrich Botanical Gardens hosted two malodorous blooms. Four corpse flowers have lived at the garden, and two of them bloomed — one in 2022 and the other in 2023. None are currently in bloom, but the Bolz Conservancy has plenty of strange plants and free-flying birds.
