Homer's Travels: Amorphophallus Titanum

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Amorphophallus Titanum

Yesterday after visiting the cemeteries and having lunch with my Aunt and Uncle, as we were passing the local botanical gardens, Mom mentioned that she heard about a foul smelling flower that was about to bloom at Lauritzen Gardens.  It turns out that the Titan Arum at the gardens (I didn't know that had one) bloomed that evening.

This morning we got up early and went to see and smell the so-called Corpse Flower.  Even at 7:00AM on a Sunday the line was about thirty minutes long (two and a half hours long as we were leaving).   The flower blooms infrequently, often two to ten years between blooms.  Lauritzen Gardens has had theirs, they named her the Amazing Stinko, for several years.  The claim to fame of this large bloom is that it smells like rotting meat.

Titan Arum - the corpse flower.
The flower bloomed last night (to the delight of the Wedding party that was at the park).  The spadix (the cone shaped part of the flower) collapsed around 2:45AM and the bloom will probably be done in twenty-four to forty-eight hours.  The smell really wasn't that bad but there was a hint of rotting meat in the air.

One more thing checked off my informal bucket list. ✔

If you are interested in it you can check out the Amazing Stinko's Twitter feed (@amazingstinko)

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