Alice The Corpse Flower

I've spent most of my waking hours today looking at pictures of the Chicago Botanic Garden's amorphophallus titanum. I've also spent most of my sleeping hours today lying on the couch in a fevered haze, listening gratefully to the rain, but I imagine that most of you would find this quite a bit less interesting, so let's focus on the corpse flower.

Alice, pretty and green, bloomed overnight, meaning that September 29th falls in the 24-to-36 hour window of stinky glory she has for the world. Corpse flowers usually blossom just once every decade, according to the Garden's statement.

A youtube channel has been set up for those of us who aren't able to teleport to Chicago. I'm admiring the deep purple color of the inner bloom. All of the staff seem so proud of Alice. It's nice to see people so excited about the smell of rotting meat.

Or, I suppose, we could say that rotting meat smells like Alice and her tribe of flowers. Less sensational, but a little gentler of spirit towards our Alice. I can imagine one of those CSI bodies sitting up in decayed indignation during the autopsy scene: "No, no, I smell like the incredibly rare ten-years-in-the-making olfactory bounty of amorphoplallus titanum. Get it right."

#natureisweirdandneat #amorphophallustitanum