Posted on 06/20/2012 9:20:06 PM PDT by JoeProBono
BOSTON, - Boston's Franklin Park Zoo said its corpse flower, named for the odor its flower gives off, bloomed overnight to welcome the first day of summer.
The amorphophallus titanium plant, nicknamed Morticia, measures 4 feet, 9 inches tall and has begun its 48-hour bloom, which takes place only once every 15 years, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
Zoo officials said the plant is one of only about 30 to bloom in captivity and needs to be kept in conditions mimicking those of its native western Indonesia, including a temperature of 82 degrees and a humidity level of 80 percent to 90 percent.
Zoo officials said the facility will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. while the flower is in bloom.
Damn!
--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
OK so a bed of those flowers could be planted at a military base
and President Obama could be invited to dedicate the Marine
Corpse flowers, one for each of the 57 states.
My son saw one of these in bloom over a year ago. He happened to have a filter mask- I forget what they are called - and he said that he was glad he had it. Apparently those plants smell quite nasty, but because they RARELY “bloom” it is a very big deal to see one in person.
He got a big laugh because only a handful of people would actually go into the enclosure where the plant was to see it up close - everyone seemed to want to view it from a distance.
He was glad he had his mask, and really glad to have seen it - he said it is enormous and quite impressive. Only in bloom for about two days.
Had one bloom in Houston at a museum in 2010.
People were lined up for days to see it.
http://www.chron.com/news/bizarre/article/Hold-your-nose-Corpse-flower-to-bloom-at-1597222.php
There’s a funeral home (one of those budget ones that does no embalming) near my town that has those in every viewing room.
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