Dead Horse Arum Lily

Dead Horse Arum Lily (Helicodiceros muscivorus)

When a plant’s name has the words ‘dead horse’ in it, you know it’s bad news. H. muscivorus is a giant flower bearing the distinct scent of rotting meat, meant to draw in female blowflies which it captures inside its swollen cavity and holds there through its first night after flowering. It releases the flies, now covered in pollen, the following day to move on to neighboring H. muscivorus plants.

Fun Fact

Once the flies are inside, they become trapped for up to six hours until the male parts of the flower begin to produce pollen. The chamber then opens and, as the fly leaves, it brushes past the pollen and then carries it to other flowers, fertilising them in the process.