Posted on 01/09/2010 7:20:16 AM PST by JoeProBono
MILWAUKEE , Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A rare, large and foul-smelling plant in the lily family that blooms about every six years may stink up the Milwaukee Public Museum Jan. 18, authorities say.
The corpse flower -- a tital arum (large lily), or Amorphophallus titanium (huge unshaped penis) -- normally grows wild in Indonesian rainforests. The schedule by which they flower is unpredictable, and once they do so, it is only for 24 to 48 hours, says a notice on the Web site of San Francisco State University.
In 2008 when the museum's other corpse flower bloomed, it gave off a stench compared to used baby diapers or rotting human flesh, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Friday.
The species was given both its names, tital arum and Amorphophallus titanium, by naturalist and broadcaster Sir Richard Attenborough for his BBC television program "The Private Life of Plants," during which a plant was captured on film pollinating and flowering.
It is estimated that only 140 corpse flowers exist and the Milwaukee Public Museum now houses four. The museum's success growing them, says Neil Luebke, the museum's curator of botany, is due to the warm, humid environment in which they're raised.
I had a smaller version of this in FL some one brought from HI. I was told it used flys to pollante???It did smell f’en gross made one want to gag........I threw it out back and let it die.Few years later I moved.............Geeezzz I think it died maybe its growing and spreading and will take over Broward......no biggie cant be much worse than whats going on there
now
Now that there is funny!
There's a lot in that statement.
I guess other museums are too "dumb" to be able to grow a flower that smells like a dead body. Also, it seems odd that Milwaukee would boast that only they are so good at growing a flower that smells like a dead body.
Of course, I got skunk cabbage growing all through the wetlands behind my house. Don't ever step on skunk cabbage.
That smell?
It's not coming from Milwaukee.
Jes sayin'
I’m told skunk cabbage is edible.
Figuring it’s Milwaukee, they’ll figure out how to use it in brewing beer.
“My, what a beautiful garden you have!”
“Why, thank you. Want to come out back and see my huge unshaped corpse penis flower?”
*SMACK*
LOL How would you get past the smell? Even the deer don't eat it and they eat bark. I have never seen the leaves show signs of being eaten.
I wonder if they were playing a joke on you?
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/showthread.php?p=54558
Don’t think I’ll try eating it though.
“FOOD USES: Marginally edible at best, skunk cabbage contains calcium oxalate crystals, which cause the must unpleasant burning sensation of the mouth and tongue. Boiling doesnít dispel this quality. I once dried young skunk cabbageÝleaves in a food dehydrator for a week, following instructions from Lee Petersonís Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Then I simmered them with lots of other vegetables, tomatoes, spices, and beans, making chili. I finally dispelled the calcium oxalate crystals from the skunk cabbageóunfortunately, they went into my mouth!
After cursing out Peterson for an hour before the burning and stinging of my tongue and mouth, caused by one bite (which I quickly spat out), subsided, I flushed the entire recipe down the toilet, and the plumbingís never been the same since!”
When, exactly?
My, that flower is...ummm...striking, and...ummm...quite impressive...
I’d better make sure that mr. a sees it.
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