Steve Sylvester, associate professor of molecular biosciences, says he planted a rare corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanium, AKA titan arum) to attract visitors to WSU Vancouver.
![Steve Sylvester extracting seeds from titan arum corpse flower](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2019/10/2019winter-last-words.1200-2-792x528.jpg)
Sylvester came to WSU Vancouver from WSU Pullman in 1996, the year the Salmon Creek campus opened. “I thought a corpse flower bloom would provide an opportunity for people to learn about us,” he says.
After 17 years of cultivation, at 8:00 p.m. on July 15, under an almost-full waxing gibbous moon, Titan VanCoug, as the plant is affectionately known, bloomed. The next day, some 12,000 people flocked to campus to get a look—and a whiff. The bloom of a corpse flower lasts just 24 to 48 hours and is infamous for its odor, comparable to that of a decomposing animal.
Sylvester was able to get pollen from a titan arum that bloomed in New York in June. In a few months, he hopes to have viable seeds he can share with other universities, conservancies, and botanical gardens.