UNC Charlotte’s burgeoning Titan Arum now has a name – Odoardo or “Odie” for short. The flower is named for Italian naturalist Odoardo Beccari, who discovered the Titan Arum in Sumatra in 1878.
Biology major Mariah Huffman, co-president of the UNC Charlotte Student Community Garden, submitted the chosen name. She said she is excited to have the chance to experience a Titan Arum blossom. While she knew about Bella, the University’s previous Titan Arum, she was not a student when the plant last bloomed in 2010 before it expired.
Odie is one of two Titan Arums the Botanical Gardens purchased from California in 2008; at that time, the plants were roughly five years old. Titan Arums are the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. According to research, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches.
Titan Arums are known not only for the size of their blooms but their odious smell that has been described as rotting flesh, which is why the plants have the nickname “corpse flower.”
Bella, the University’s Titan Arum bloomed initially in 2007, a first for the Carolinas.
“In captivity, Titan Arums usually bloom two or three times, and this bloom will definitely attract lots of people to the Botanical Gardens as it did with Bella,” stated Paula Gross, acting director of the Botanical Gardens.
On July 8, gardens officials estimated that Odie would bloom within 10 days. Odie, housed in the McMillan Greenhouse, has grown significantly in the past several days – up to five inches in a recent 24-hour span.