Upon entering Aaron Baldwin’s home in Juneau, you’ll immediately see evidence of his science-fiction fandom. A poster for “2001: A Space Odyssey” is directly inside the door and fake travel posters for fictional locations such as Lake Silencio from “Doctor Who” line the staircase leading upstairs.
Baldwin’s real-life piece of science fiction isn’t visible until you reach the top of the stairs, but for the next couple days, you’ll smell it before you see it.
Baldwin, a biological taxonomist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has recently gotten interested in exotic plants. His biggest project — caring for an Indonesian flower referred to as either a voodoo lily or a stink lily — has just reached completion, as the flower finally bloomed this weekend, more than a year after Baldwin bought the bulbs.
“A year and a half ago, I hadn’t heard of these things,” Baldwin said Sunday. “They were completely unknown to me. Now, I’m hoping to become Juneau’s biggest stink lily farmer. Not that there’s much competition.”
The smell was just starting to take over the house Sunday, as Baldwin’s wife Lisa Ward pointed out. When the lily (which carries the scientific name of amorphophallus konjac) first bloomed Saturday night, the smell wasn’t apparent without sticking one’s nose right in the flower. By early Sunday afternoon, Ward said she could smell it on the other side of the house.
The smell, like damp leaves that had made their way into someone’s dirty laundry, will only increase during the two or three days that the flower is in bloom. The smell attracts flies and beetles, which pollinate the plant.
The plant, which grows a few inches every day once it emerges from the ground, spends so much energy that it actually heats itself and can only stay in bloom like this for a couple days. It will become dormant and bloom again in a couple years, Baldwin said.
He first got interested in exotic flowers a couple years ago, when co-workers asked him to identify a plant and he didn’t know what it was. He started researching online and stumbled upon the amorphophallus family. The largest of the family, known as amorphophallus titanium — or more popularly as “corpse flower” — can grow to upwards of 15 feet tall.
Baldwin said the “alien appearance,” as well as the rapid growth of the plants, attracted him to them. It’s been easy enough to find them, as the plants are available at multiple places online, including Ebay. He now owns eight different members of the amorphophallus family, displaying them both at home and at his office.
“I’m afraid if I start branching out, I’ll end up a botanist,” Baldwin said, smiling. “I have way too many years of grad school invested in zoology.”
Those around the office have become fascinated with the plants he keeps there, coming by to measure them from time to time and see how quickly they’ve grown. Ward also has a few where she works at the State of Alaska Department of Public Safety, where some are startled at how quickly the plants are growing.
Though they currently keep their plants indoors, Baldwin and Ward have discussed the possibility of planting a couple of them in their yard. Baldwin said that he’s had his eye on dragon lilies in particular, or other large flowers that are tolerant to the cold.
“They don’t have that smell though, right?” Ward asked, seeming to already know the answer.
Baldwin smirked, almost guiltily.
“Yeah, they kind of do.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com or 523-2271.
One of the “stink lily” flowers that bloomed Sunday, grown by Aaron Baldwin at his home in Juneau. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
