What is this plant? PacNW, Gigantic

July 5, 2014 8:32 PM

This plant lives near me and has returned for several summers. The photo was taken about three weeks ago - the blossom is now gone. The blossom was about a foot long - I joked that it was a Venus Flytrap for people. What is it?!?
posted by bq to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

Looks like an arum lily. I've never seen them in the PacNW, but saw them all over the Greek islands in spring. Here's some very large ones.
posted by oxisos at 8:57 PM on July 5, 2014

Response by poster: Wow! I've never gotten too close to it so I can't testify as to smell. I wonder how it got there.
posted by bq at 6:31 AM on July 6, 2014

My horticulturist friend posted something similar to her Facebook page and called it Amorphophallus as well. I took photos of these out at Egdefield in Troutdale, Oregon, since they were so mysterious. Looks like there's a number of different varieties of this cool plant.
posted by amanda at 7:20 AM on July 6, 2014

My neighbor here in PNW has one in her garden, huge and healthy; Voodoo lily, yep!
posted by The otter lady at 1:39 PM on July 6, 2014