DC's recent Corpse Flower Bloom watch vied with the Royal Baby watch. Okay, not really. (Somehow I was obsessed with the Royal Wedding, but immensely less so with the Royal Baby. Although I love the birth-to-naming delay--it really holds peoples' attention.)
The Titan Arum opens infrequently (once every 10-ish years) and briefly (for 24 to 48 hours) and purportedly smells like rotting flesh to attract the insects that pollinate it. The Botanical Gardens had one just on the verge of blooming and did some great advertising. In fact, I got so tired of waiting for the thing to bloom that I visited it when it was still closed up. Hence, these pictures. (You could even watch it on a live webcam, and watch it I did.)
2 comments:
Oh wow, I had no idea how big that flower was -- I'd seen some close-up photos in the news, but hadn't paid much attention. I'd hate to be standing downwind from it when it blossoms! We have some similar flowers in our back yard -- voodoo lilies, which are a blackish-purple and also give off the rotting-meat smell to attract flies. They're a very goth sort of flower -- fortunately, they're in only in bloom for about a week.
My only interest in the Royal Wedding was to see what kind of hats they would all wear (Andrew's daughters came through in a big way) but I am very interested in the Royal Baby Name, just to see how creative they can get when (1) the baby will have a minimum of four names and (2) so many names are off-limits for them!
Oh wow--I've never heard of these voodoo lilies. Now I'm curious about them, too.
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