Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Corpse Flower in Bloom!

If you live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, take some time to trot over to the Milwaukee Public Museum and take a peek at one of the rarest-and the largest-flowers on Earth: the Corpse Flower. The titan arum is a plant that's endangered in the wild, so the only chance most of us will have to see one in bloom is to head for a museum, arboretum, or botanical garden that has one in bloom. The plant spends so much energy on growing so large, that the bloom only stays open for two days, stinking like a corpse the whole time.

Here's a better picture, taken at Kew Gardens in London in 2005. The flower tops seven feet tall, and its scent can be smelled by our human noses from half a mile away.

Play hooky today and go see this rare thing while it's still blooming!

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