Happy Halloween- Apparently, even some plants must love Halloween! 🎃
When Amorphophallus titanum blooms, it turns up the heat and releases a bouquet best described as “recently deceased.”
🔥 It does not merely smell like decay, it warms itself, helping release a carefully engineered plume of carrion-like chemicals that draws in flies and beetles.
New molecular research links this floral heat to elevated activity of alternative oxidase pathways and identifies methionine as a precursor for key sulfurous odor compounds.
➡️ Researchers also identified putrescine (the same compound associated with decomposition of humans and others) as a previously unrecognized part of the plant’s infamous scent profile.
Reference: Alveena Zulfiqar, Beenish J Azhar, Samina N Shakeel, William Thives Santos, Theresa D Barry, Dana Ozimek, Kim DeLong, Ruthie Angelovici, Kathleen M Greenham, Craig A Schenck, G Eric Schaller. Molecular basis for thermogenesis and volatile production in the titan arum. PNAS Nexus, 2024
Parfum: ‘Recently Deceased’ ⚰️ 🌺 😱
