Posted on 06/05/2017 12:23:53 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
It is unusual enough to see one of nature's biggest, rarest—not to mention smelliest—flowers bloom. But it is extraordinary to see two bloom at once.
That is why two seven-foot-tall corpse flowers at the Chicago Botanic Garden have attracted thousands of visitors this week, despite the smell of rotting flesh that the flowers emit to attract pollinating beetles and flies.
The rare flowers, officially called titan arum, are naturally occurring in just one place on Earth—the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
They smell like rotting corpses so let’s name these two properly: “Hillary Clinton” and “John Kerry”.
The Corpse Flower would be unfortunately, quite appropriate as an Official City Flower for the city of Chicago, when you consider the joblessness, the local murder rate and the thousands of citizens who have moved away. Hopefully, after Ram is gone, they will recover under better leadership. My hometown of Detroit went through a similar Dark Age, and has yet to fully rise from the ashes of corruption, cronyism and fiscal mismanagement. But there are signs of improvement.
Today we are going to Gardens Of The World. :)
There is some a Coca-Cola event going on with music and games. I put a liter bottle of water in the freezer to take with us (I am cheap and like to save euros when I can). My wife said there is a Coca-Cola event. I replied:; good I will bring a bottle home to clean the toilet with.
If any city can make a corpse flower bloom it would be Chicago.
(That's Rich and Hastings for those of you in Rio Linda.)
Rofl
Don’t we see these stories about how “rare” these flowers are to bloom in “captivity” every freakin’ year for the last 20 years? Journalists really suck.
So, it’s not actually “rare”, it’s just what they normally do.
From Wikipedia:
“In cultivation, the titan arum generally requires 7–10 years of vegetative growth before blooming for the first time. After its initial blooming, there can be considerable variation in blooming frequency. Some plants may not bloom again for another 7–10 years while others may bloom every two to three years.[11] There have also been documented cases of back-to-back blooms occurring within a year [12] and corms simultaneously sending up both a leaf (or two) and an inflorescence.[13] There has also been an occasion when a corm produced multiple simultaneous blooms.[14]”
Each flower only blooms once every few years, and the flowers themselves are quite uncommon. And there has not been a flower per year blooming.
One of these flowers bloomed at UC Davis while I was a student there. I went to visit it, but unfortunately, it was only giving off a very weak odor. The bloom lasts only a couple of days, and it only emits the odor for a few hours during that time. They are very interesting and unusual plants.
I can’t think of a more appropriate city in the U.S. for a corpse flower to bloom.
Two of these blooming in Chicago? Must be a sure sign of climate change.
I remember that line very well and use it every so often when the conversation allows it. :)
Remember Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Quick call Zer0 and Mooch.
A DNC bouquet.
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