{"id":2680,"date":"2021-10-30T00:03:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T07:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-483\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:49:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:49:41","slug":"corpse-plant-or-voodoo-lily","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/corpse-plant-or-voodoo-lily\/","title":{"rendered":"Corpse plant or voodoo lily?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently purchased a house that has a relative of the <\/strong>corpse plant in the yard. It is a perennial about 30″ tall and has <\/strong>been in bloom since yesterday with a deep burgundy bloom that is <\/strong>about 10″ long. It has delicate, deeply lobed leaves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any idea what it could be or how to care for it? I was considering <\/strong>transplanting it since it sits just below our dining room window, <\/strong>under the eave of the house. Stinky! I imagine it will only bloom <\/strong>for a short time. Could it be rare?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am guessing that what you have is the voodoo lily, or Dracunculus vulgaris<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The website of a Pacific Northwest gardener, Paghat,<\/a> has information about this plant with pictures for you to compare with the plant in your garden. Vanderbilt University also has images of this plant on its Bioimages<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

For contrast, here are images of corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanum<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to The Royal Horticultural Society’s A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants<\/em><\/a> edited by Christopher Brickell (DK Publishing, 1996) the plant you have is frost-hardy, and grows best in full sun but will tolerate partial shade. You can protect it with a winter mulch. Native to the Mediterranean, Madeira, and the Canary Islands, they grow well in open glades in sheltered woodland, or at the base of a sunny wall. From what I have heard from other gardeners (we receive several questions a year about this plant), they do spread over time. If you wish to increase their numbers, they can be propagated by separating offsets in fall or spring.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently purchased a house that has a relative of the corpse plant in the yard. It is a perennial about 30″ tall and has been in bloom since yesterday with a deep burgundy bloom that is about 10″ long. It has delicate, deeply lobed leaves. Any idea what it could be or how to care for it? I was considering transplanting it since it sits just below our dining room window, under the eave of the house. Stinky! I…<\/p>\n

Continue reading Corpse plant or voodoo lily?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[633],"class_list":["post-2680","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-dracunculus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/2680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=2680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}