A (dead) elephant in the garden.....?

If you google 'Elephant Lily' you will come up with lots of lovely photos of this dear little baby elephant....

  

but this wasn't quite what I was searching for when I tried to find out more about the curious tuber I'd planted in a pot in the garden two summers ago. 

I waited in vain for a spectacular plant to appear......the pot got tucked away in a corner over winter and it wasn't until this Spring that I realised that something interesting was sprouting.
By May the large, tightly wrapped flower started to unfurl.



A few days ago the waiting was over...

This amazing plant is an amorphophallus konjac.  It has even more impressive relatives....

http://www.tropenmuseum.nl/

This is the amorphophallus titanum more commonely known as the Titan Arum or The Corpse Flower because of the stench of rotting meat which it gives off . 

The amorphophallus konjac is also fairly pungent and might be more appropriately called 'Dead Elephant Lily' ! 

I decided to move it away from beside the door of the gites to a spot in the garden where it can be admired but not smelt! A corpse-like smell might be rather unnerving for the guests.....

Fawlty Towers - The Kipper and the Corpse