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CNN Live Today
Interview with John Trager
Aired August 07, 2002 - 13:49 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it smells like rotten flesh, and hundreds of people are coming to smell for the very first time this giant, stinky flower known as the corpse flower. The rare plant is beginning to bloom at the Huntington Library if San Mateo, California, and curator John Trager joins us from Los Angeles to talk about this exhibit. Can you take it, John?
JOHN TRAGER, CURATOR, HUNTINGTON LIBRARY: I hope so.
PHILLIPS: Have you been able to smell it yet?
TRAGER: Oh, sure.
PHILLIPS: Oh -- so what does it smell like?
TRAGER: Like something rotting, rotting flesh.
PHILLIPS: What is the fascination? Why do people want to come and and see this?
TRAGER: That's one for the anthropologists. I don't know.
PHILLIPS: Well, why don't you talk to us. We are looking at a picture of it right now, this plant. It actually looks like there is a body held up inside of the plant there. Tell us about it. It comes from Indonesia. Give us a little background.
TRAGER: It is native to the rain forests of Olen (ph) Sumatra, and it only flowers once every few years, every three to seven years.
PHILLIPS: So how did it get here, John?
TRAGER: The plant came to us from a grower in Arizona, and it flowered three years ago, and it is flowering again now.
PHILLIPS: OK. Now, tell us about this grower in Arizona. How did this person get his hands on the plant, and why did he start growing it?
TRAGER: He is interested in unusual plants. Mark Dimmitt, he is the curator of botany at the Sonora Desert Museum, and he acquired it from a botanical garden seed list in Germany.
PHILLIPS: All right. So what makes it stink?
TRAGER: It emits a smell to attract pollinators, and it happens to be pollinated by carrion beatles, so it emits an appropriate scent. PHILLIPS: Wow. Who named it the corpse flower?
TRAGER: An Italian botanist about a century ago.
PHILLIPS: About a century ago. That's when it was first discovered.
TRAGER: Right.
PHILLIPS: OK. Tell us exactly where it was discovered.
TRAGER: In Sumatra, and they introduced it to Europe, and a few years later, it flowered for the first time at Kew Botanical Gardens in England.
PHILLIPS: Now, why does it fascinate you?
TRAGER: Oh, it's an interesting plant. It is an incredible structure, and it is a rare plant as well.
PHILLIPS: So, by studying this plant, what does that mean for botanical research?
TRAGER: Well, we are hoping that we can propagate the plant, and distribute it a little more widely so that we can continue to study it. It has only flowered a few times in cultivation.
PHILLIPS: So is there anything that we can take from it, you know, like for example, some plants we can get remedies from for sicknesses, or you know, make -- is there anything that comes from this plant that potentially could be interesting?
TRAGER: Well, that -- potentially. There is a lot of research yet to be done. We do know that many members of this family are edible. So there may be a potential food source there.
PHILLIPS: Really?
TRAGER: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Smelling that badly?
TRAGER: The tuber is edible, as well as parts of the flower.
PHILLIPS: Have you ever tasted it?
TRAGER: No.
PHILLIPS: What does it -- do you know what it tastes like? Has anyone described it to you?
TRAGER: Oh, I understand that the spadic (ph) was cooked up with chilies and chicken in parts of Indonesia, but I haven't tried it.
PHILLIPS: Oh, my goodness. And when you cook it, does the smell go away, does it get worse? TRAGER: It probably goes away. But I don't know, I haven't tried it.
PHILLIPS: What about medical significance, anything?
TRAGER: There is certainly potential medical significance, but that has yet to be researched.
PHILLIPS: So what's the potential? Do we know?
TRAGER: As with any plant, we don't really know until we find out a little bit more about its genome, and what sort of chemicals are involved in its byproducts.
PHILLIPS: All right. Curator John Trager there from the Huntington Library in San Mateo, California. Do you recommend to bring nose plugs? Does it last for a while, the smell? Can you smell it from real far away?
TRAGER: You can, and smelling it is part of the experience, so...
PHILLIPS: John, thank you so much.
TRAGER: You're welcome.
PHILLIPS: All right.
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