"Corpse flower" (Amorphophallus titanium) back from the dead! -- Limp, but alive.

Static shot seen on the right is saved from the live web cam

Corpse flower back from the dead

Posted: Nov. 10, 2008 9:12 a.m.

It's alive! Alive!

An early morning report from the Milwaukee Public Museum confirms that the Amorphophallus titanium "corpse flower" that was declared dead over the weekend is alive and stinking.

A Web cam stationed in the museum shows that the flower's spadix flopped in recent days, so the plant no longer reaches about seven feet in the air. But the plant was blooming and putting out its odor just before the museum opened today.

Museum experts were set to examine the plant this morning to determine what it was really up to.

Titan arums bloom infrequently, and this one never has. When they do, they give off a powerful odor lasting about six hours.

But the native of Sumatra craves a hot, humid environment - from 80 to 85 degrees. While the temperature in the plant's space at the public museum caused visitors to sweat, it was only around 76 or 77 degrees at a reading in recent days.

You can drop by and take a look or you can check out the Web cam.

-- Originally posted on JSOnline.com

Wikipedia links: Corpse flower aka the species Amorphophallus titanum or Titan arum