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It takes 10 years to bloom, and the scent is to die from

wdlove

wdlove

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
STORRS, Conn. -- Today or maybe tomorrow or the next day, the giant petals of one of the world's largest flowers will slowly unfold and unleash one of the worst natural smells on Earth.

The 10-year-old corpse flower, known as bunga bangkai in its native Indonesia and titan arum or Amorphophallus titanum in botany, has already attracted more than 6,000 visitors in the final days before its first bloom.

T-shirts with its likeness have sold briskly. The webcam following its progress in the University of Connecticut greenhouse has had more than a million hits by yesterday afternoon.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2004/07/02/it_takes_10_years_to_bloom_and_the_scent_is_to_die_from/
 
A

Ajmbc

macrumors regular
Jan 29, 2003
232
0
Louisiana
wdlove said:
STORRS, Conn. -- Today or maybe tomorrow or the next day, the giant petals of one of the world's largest flowers will slowly unfold and unleash one of the worst natural smells on Earth.

The 10-year-old corpse flower, known as bunga bangkai in its native Indonesia and titan arum or Amorphophallus titanum in botany, has already attracted more than 6,000 visitors in the final days before its first bloom.

T-shirts with its likeness have sold briskly. The webcam following its progress in the University of Connecticut greenhouse has had more than a million hits by yesterday afternoon.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2004/07/02/it_takes_10_years_to_bloom_and_the_scent_is_to_die_from/
Click to expand...

I'd like to go see that one- but it's in connecticut- way too far away from me :(

Thanks for the link wdlove! :)
 
P

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
makes ya curious though doesnt it? i want to know what it smells like now, i mean can anything smell that awful? or is it as bad as people say?
 
W

Waluigi

macrumors 6502
Apr 29, 2003
348
0
Connecticut
I went there on sunday 6/27. It had not yet bloomed, but the thing was the size of a small tree! At the time there wasn't any smell, except for the smell of the horticulture building it was housed in. I don't think it's bloomed yet, but once it does, I'll go back, and see how big it is, and how bad it really smells :)

--Waluigi
 
alia

alia

macrumors 65816
Apr 2, 2003
1,038
626
Tampa, FL (Orlando, 2003 - 2023)
One of those bloomed in Atlanta last year... although we missed seeing it. It's located at the Botanical Gardens I believe, which I loved to go and take photos at (when I lived there).

I haven't found such a nice place to take flower photographs in Florida. :)


Alia
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
FWIW:

If you take the following HTML snippet and put it into a new HTML file (i.e., copy it from here, open TextEdit, paste it, and save it as corpseflower.html or whatever), you'll get a view of the flower that updates every 10 seconds (just change the '10' on the first line to alter the speed - note that the webcam itself doesn't update more than every 10 seconds or so):

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10">
<head><title>Corpse Flower</title></head>
<body>
<div align="center"><img src="http://137.99.89.20/titan.jpg"></div>
</body>
</html>
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
Having been watching the webcam now... can't stop... don't know why I keep staring at a motionless big plant... but, anyway, I've realized that, once the darn thing actually blooms, you'll never see it. All it takes is for a few people to be in front of the camera to completely block the view. Might have been nice if the cam were higher up or at a slightly different angle.
 
wdlove

wdlove

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
Waluigi said:
I went there on sunday 6/27. It had not yet bloomed, but the thing was the size of a small tree! At the time there wasn't any smell, except for the smell of the horticulture building it was housed in. I don't think it's bloomed yet, but once it does, I'll go back, and see how big it is, and how bad it really smells :)

--Waluigi
Click to expand...

I have been very intrigued by this plant. Will look forward to hearing about your first person account of the smell. Would be interested in how it compares to other smells.
 
Dr. Dastardly

Dr. Dastardly

macrumors 65816
Jun 26, 2004
1,317
1
I live in a giant bucket!
A couple of years ago I was driving through Seattle and there was a huge traffic jam on the freeway because the back of a cargo truck popped open and dumped a bunch of chopped up cow parts all over the freeway. And on top of that it was late July and 92 degrees!




It smells just like that, believe me. :eek:
 
wdlove

wdlove

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
Dr. Dastardly said:
A couple of years ago I was driving through Seattle and there was a huge traffic jam on the freeway because the back of a cargo truck popped open and dumped a bunch of chopped up cow parts all over the freeway. And on top of that it was late July and 92 degrees!




It smells just like that, believe me. :eek:
Click to expand...

Trust me human flesh is must worse. I've had some experience while in mortuary school. Saw decaying bodies out of the river and found on dry ground.
 
tpjunkie

tpjunkie

macrumors 65816
Nov 24, 2002
1,251
5
NYC
wdlove said:
Trust me human flesh is must worse. I've had some experience while in mortuary school. Saw decaying bodies out of the river and found on dry ground.
Click to expand...

Yeah, in middle school we came to school on monday, and when we got off the bus, we were greeted by one of the worst smells i've ever inhaled. Apparently, on friday someone had OD'd on something in the glen behind the school, and rolled down the hill across town lines and came to rest fairly near to the school, and he lay there all weekend. It was an incredibly nasty smell.
 
Apple Hobo

Apple Hobo

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2004
796
0
A series of tubes
I think one of those stink plants bloomed recently here in Miami.

One of the nastiest smells I've ever smelled was a bunch of rotting lobsters. Somebody dumbed about a dozen+ lobsters on the side of a road that I had to walk past on my way to school. I think they were Florida lobsters, and someone probably took their tails and dumped the rest of the carcasses. Now remember, this was all in the heat of south Florida. Even worse, the lobsters were dumped in a place where people parked their cars to pick their kids up, so they smashed these rotting lobsters into a pile of mush. Hot, rotting lobster mush...yummy!
puke.gif


Another time, some sick motherfu*ker left some dead, rotting animal in a brown paper bag near my house. That smelled like crap. It was probably a cat or dog. Then something strange happened; someone took this bag and placed it into a new, larger bag and then left the whole thing there. WTF?!
puke2.gif
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
Looking at the current pictures from the site, it appears that it's starting to open. No one's passed out around it yet, though. And, BTW, it is not open yet - just starting to open up..
 
wdlove

wdlove

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
It does appear to be very close to being fully open. There are a lot of visitors around the flower art the moment.
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
And so far, no one seems to have succumbed to the stench. ;)

It is opening very slowly. At this rate, it wil be hours before it's as open as the picture on the placard nearby would indicate it will be when finished. Perhaps it will speed up... I've been checking hourly, and it's definitely been moving at about the same sloooow rate for about 5 hours.
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
I now understand why this thing only booms every decade - it apparently takes most of that time just to bloom. ;)

Days after it started, it doesn't look even close to being finished.
 
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