Common Name: Voodoo Lily, Devil’s Tongue
Amorphophallus konjac
Family: Araceae
It’s worth noting that “Voodoo Lily” is a name given to more than one plant, including Sauromatum venosum—which is the Voodoo Lily featured here.
Height: 18-24″ (can sometimes grow larger)
Hardiness: To about 10 degrees Farenheight
Plant in shade in sunnier climates, prefers more sun in foggier or cooler climates. Keep outdoors when blooming if you don’t want your house to smell like a toilet.
The Devil’s Tongue or the Voodoo Lily (Amorphophallus konjac) is lush in appearance but one whiff and you’ll soon know why it has an association with the Devil. Like the Corpse Flower A. konjac is pollinated by carrion beetles and flies, who are attracted to its rotten-flesh-like scent.
How best to describe the smell? Acrid, cloying—like the body of a roadkill animal left in the noonday sun. A touch sulfuric. This is the kind of smell you can’t quite place but you know you have smelled it before. It is the smell of decay. If you haven’t had a lot of experience with corpse sniffing, a more common comparison is the smell of flowers left too long in a vase. That scent, when the water is putrid, is the essence of what a Voodoo Lily smells like.
The konjac grows from a starchy “bulb” (a tuber) which can be harvested for food. It produces a thickening agent that can be used as a vegan substitute for gelatin. It’s frequently used in Lychee fruit cups. In fact, a quick google search will lead you to a number of products that feature konjac. Fiber-rich vitamin supplements are made from the tuber, and thought to promote healthy digestion and weight loss. The tuber is used in soups and stews, and you can even buy konjac flour. However, parts of the plant are known to be poisonous.
Updated July 2023
—Amber Guetebier
rottenbotany 
hi! i’m kate and i live in greece. today i smelled this weird smell and i thought my cat had died in the bush, but then i found this plant!
now that i found what it was i’m terribly sorry…
unfortunately, beeing unaware of what it was, we took it out…
can i still save the “onion” (still in the ground) and where should i turn for help?
In my experience the tubers (the “onion”) is tougher than you think. It will probably come back all on its own. The main issue is that you may not get the flower right away. It will need to produce leaves to regain the juice to pop out another beauty.
If you want to move it to a less prominent part of the garden so that it doesn’t stink up the whole place, you can just dig up that tuber and plant it elsewhere. I keep mine in a pot so I can enjoy the flower but move it away from my face if I am just trying to relax in the garden. And remember, the smell/flower doesn’t last long. It is a rare and rotten beauty!!
thanks a lot !!!
Let us know how it goes. And if you do a pot make sure to leave it out in the rain during rainy season. These dark beauties love the rain!!