Tuesday, May 13, 2014

City and County of Honolulu News

 
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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Contact: Scot Mitamura 754-1828

 

Corpse plants continue to bloom at Foster Botanical Garden

Foster Botanical Garden to remain open until 6 p.m. today and tomorrow

 

Honolulu - Just weeks after "Mr. Stinky," one of Foster Botanical Garden's Amorphophallus titanum (corpse plant) bloomed, two more flowers have bloomed and one more is expected to bloom tomorrow.

 

Foster Botanical Garden is normally open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., daily, except for Christmas and New Year's Day.  The garden will remain open until 6 p.m. today and tomorrow to allow extra viewing time.

 

Native to Sumatra, Indonesia, the endangered Amorphophallus titanum is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom. Contributing to this plant's exotic allure is its pungent odor of rotting flesh, which serves to attract the carrion beetles that pollinate the flower.  These short-lived flowers only bloom once every three to five years.  Visitors will have the even rarer opportunity to see more than one of the flowers in bloom at the same time.

 

Other plants in the same Aroid plant family are on display to complement this impressive public collection:

  • Amorphophallus konjac, source of the Japanese yam cake konnyaku
  • Brightly colored Anthurium flowers
  • Various ornamental cultivars of Taro (or Kalo)

Foster Botanical Garden, located at 50 North Vineyard Boulevard in downtown Honolulu, is the oldest of the city's botanical gardens. The garden displays a mature and impressive collection of tropical plants. Some of the magnificent trees in this 14-acre garden were planted in the 1850s by Dr. William Hillebrand. The garden also includes a palm collection, the Lyon Orchid Garden, hybrid orchid display, the Prehistoric Glen, and a gift shop.

 

Cost for admission at Foster Garden is: $5.00 - general, 13 years and older; $3.00 - Hawaii resident 13 years and older with ID, $1.00 - Child 6 to 12 years old; free - Child 5 years old and under (must be with adult). Call 522-7066 for information.

 

Please "Like" Foster Botanical Garden or Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Facebook to find out when the Amorphophallus titanum blooms.

 

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