Dracunculus vulgaris – dragon lily. It was featured in the gardening column for next week, both as an illustration for the main topic, and as the ‘highlight’ species. It is as unappealing as the name and the pictures suggest, but it sure is interesting. It has several more equally unappealing common names. We know it as ‘death arum’ because that is the first name we came up with.
Besides, it smells like death. Yes, it stinks. It does so to attract flies for pollination. Actually, it attracts quite a few annoying insects. I can not explain why, but insects who congregate around stinky flowers are as unappealing as the fragrance that draws them. They are certainly very different from the appealing bees and butterflies who pollinate flowers with appealing fragrance.
The first of these death arums mysteriously appeared in the garden of a colleague several years ago, and promptly multiplied by both seed and disbursement of tubers. There are now a few expansive colonies that continue to expand. Cutting down the foliage does not slow them down much. The fragrance, which is not too bad individually, is getting to be bothersome collectively.
My colleague brought me one of the tubers to confirm the identity. I got a picture of it since it was here, but then did not know what to do with it. I did not want to toss it aside into the forest like I do with so much other greenwaste. It could have grown into a problem. I did not want to discard it either, since it was viable and healthy. So, I canned it and put it aside in the nursery.
This is the result. It is not as stinky as I expected it to be. I still do not know what to do with it.
Tony Tomeo 
I grow this too and it might smell awful but it is certainly eye-catching.
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Yes! Even though I really do not want it to naturalize, I so want to grow more of it. I intend to can this one into something larger so that it can multiply. I really do not know what to do with it if it multiplies too much.
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Chloris! Why on earth would you want this
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It’s so dramatic and sinister looking.
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This is one of those flowers that is really cool, but probably best appreciated at a distance. If I had neighbors, I might give this to one of them and tell them it is really pretty and fragrant. (It certainly is fragrant.) Then, next year, I could enjoy it at a safe distance and get picture of it, but be out of range of the . . . fragrance. However, I would be concerned that it might become a weed, or that the neighbor might share it with other neighbors.
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(I did not want to ask.)
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Hahaha – the beetles like it, I guess!
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It was Beetlemania!
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Ha
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!!!
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Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
Three years later, this particular dragon lily is right outside, and continues to bloom annually. It remains canned until I find an appropriate situation for it, and even then, it will likely remain potted for containment. I do not want it to naturalize.
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