Hothouse Flowers Rarities

Corpse Flower

• Two flowers are honored with the name corpse flower, because both flowers smell like rotting flesh. The most well-known is the Amorphophallus titanum, which has one of the largest flowers in the world. The entire inflorescence can grow 10 feet tall, and it's quite beautiful with its velvety-purple, bell-shaped flowers with a large central spathe. The Rafflesia is also called a corpse flower, and its large 3-foot-wide flowers resemble a red mushroom with a big central hole. Both of these flowers rely on the pollen carried by insects that normally feed on carrion and are attracted by the smell.

Jamaican Poinsettia

• Jamaican poinsettias (Euphorbia punicea) are in the same family as the better-known Christmas poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima). The plant is a mound of long, thin leaves and small red flowers form on the branch ends that are reminiscent of poinsettias. It can get to 10 feet tall under ideal conditions, but can be kept smaller with pruning. Euphorbias have a milky sap that is sometimes irritating to the skin.

Giant Starfish Plant

• The giant starfish plant (Stapelia noblis) is another oddity with a deceivingly nasty smell.

  The light-orange blooms resemble starfish, and they can get as large as 18 inches across. Other varieties of Stapelia have flowers of similar shape, ranging in color from light orange to red with white dots. Any of these would be an odd and fun plant to grow in a hothouse. The foliage is cactuslike, ranges in color from green to purple and forms mounds of upright spiny branches.

Black Bat Flower

• The black bat flower (Tacca chantrieri) is exceptionally beautiful, although it's rather strange. It is deep velvety-purple (almost black) and has an open, cuplike 1-foot-wide growth from which tiny purple flowers grow. These flowers are accompanied by a multitude of whiskers, which are long thin protrusions that hang down from the flower. Some of these whiskers can get to 2 feet long. These are a great curiosity for your hothouse collection.