Efficient pollination stinks: Corpse flowers use floral trapping and persistent emissions

Flowering corpse plants attract pollinating carrion insects through pungent, nocturnal odors. Female flowers primarily emit organosulfur, including ~12gS/hour as methanethiol with mixing ratios comparable to landfills; male emissions are smaller and more diverse. Floral emissions during blooming represent ~0.4% of plant biomass and change throughout the blooming sequence, consistent with floral trapping: insects remain with florets after initial attraction for subsequent release with pollen shedding the following night, preventing inbreeding and enhancing fertilization efficiency. Female flower plumes are resilient under pristine conditions, with relative floral composition changing minimally with nighttime oxidation and attracting insects for later release during the male bloom stage, which is less resilient. In polluted atmospheres, rapid oxidation may impact compound ratios and plume size, inhibiting pollination of these endangered plants.

Methods
Data was collected during a corpse flower bloom at Colorado State University (May 2024), via proton-transfer mass spectrometry and offline cartridge samles that were thermally desorbed onto a gas spectrometry mass spectrometer. Additional data includes greenhouse temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide concentrations.