Pharyngula

Posted by: Algernon, elle sans chapeau | March 3, 2010 9:59 PM

I love those things. They are so amazing.

Posted by: Algernon, elle sans chapeau | March 3, 2010 10:03 PM

Yeah. It smells like rotting meat. I don't care though. I love it anyway.

Posted by: Holytape | March 3, 2010 10:32 PM

A flower that smells like rotting meat, and attracts flies -- there's a joke in there about the flower of choice for Mother's-in-Law day, but I'll be damned if I can find it.
Noah's ark

Posted by: skullsinthestars.com | March 3, 2010 10:50 PM

We actually have one of these things in the botanical gardens at my university. I missed the one time it bloomed, though.

Posted by: Thanny | March 3, 2010 11:14 PM

There are several of these in the US, and at least one had a web cam on it 24/7 watching for the bloom.

The common name is "corpse flower", on account of the stench.

Posted by: JohnnieCanuck | March 4, 2010 12:12 AM

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I suspect the Trophy Wife™ wouldn't allow one of these in the house, let alone attempt to carry it around on her shoulder.

Posted by: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s | March 4, 2010 12:35 AM

I've got a row of stapelias on my windowsill, and one of them usually blooms annually. It attracts houseflies, who walk around on the hairy petals buzzing loudly and ewvidently laying eggs

I think I'll let that typo stand, because I realized they were laying eggs when I noticed the little teeny maggots on the windowsill. After that, I've been taking the plant outside to visit Joe's pots of carnivores; I figure it's a natural relationship that just doesn't happen to happen in nature.

Like some other arums—skunk cabbages, e.g.—A. titanum also generates heat, which accelerates the scent distribution. Some North American skunk cabbages melt the snow over their flowers.

And guess what they smell like.

There've been several of these in bloom in greenhouses around here over the past few years. I think UC Davis had on of the first. They stationed grad students to watch theirs constantly. Nightshift slept in a hammock, wearing a gas mask. Or so they told me.

If I had a hothouse I'd definitely have one of these. All else aside, they're fuckin .

Ron Sullivan
http://toad.faultline.org

Posted by: Gary | March 4, 2010 1:13 AM

"A BBC nature show with David Attenborough" The best thing on television, and it's been that way for decades. Other shows come and go, but that's a constant. they never fail to teach and entertain.

Posted by: Butch Pansy | March 4, 2010 3:20 AM

Oh, the joys of fly-pollinated plants! Hoodia gordonia is a stapeliad with flowers like pink dish antennae and the aroma of dog shit: big, fresh, carnivorous-dog, shit. Another warm and steamy perfume is that of the nasty pericarp of Gingko biloba; it'll also have you checking your shoes when its fruits are splatting on the sidewalk in the fall. I don't know what sort of creature it's inviting to spread its seeds, something with a more "developed" palate, I suppose. Something that likes durian, perhaps.

Posted by: paulnaveau | March 4, 2010 4:40 AM

Very cool,

i cannot help but feel happy that on the blog i read daily (99.9% lurking), and referred to several times in the most active period of my own blog,
the same fragment is posted that i've once posted too,
(sorry guys, not having a great day, being able to identify with a role model helps :-))

About my own attempt at seeing this flower blossom in our Belgian National Plant garden,
unfortunately i missed it with just a few days

http://paulusdeblogkabouter.blogspot.com/2008/07/rotting-corpse-cheese-and-fish.html

they had 2 flowers coming out close together, unfortunately missed that one too (FAIL!)
http://paulusdeblogkabouter.blogspot.com/2008/08/another-rotting-corpse-more-cheese-and.html

and obviously David Attenborough rules supreme in this genre of movies!!

Posted by: mk.ramm | March 4, 2010 6:09 AM

Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, NC usually has them for sale, but seems to have sold out this spring.

http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/01775.html

Posted by: Nickp | March 4, 2010 9:33 AM

I've got one of it's smaller relatives, Amorphophallus konjac, in bloom right now. The flower is a mere 4 feet tall and smells like an attractive mix of carrion and sewage.

A. konjac is very easy to grow: large tubs in summer, store the corm dry on a shelf in winter. They usually bloom in Spring, but one stored on a high shelf in the laundry room started sprouting early this year. My wife noticed it when the inflorescence had hit the ceiling and turned 90 degrees.

wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konjac

Posted by: Merridol | March 4, 2010 3:29 PM

We had a Stapelia in the lab for a while, it seemed to mimic the anus of a dead dog in color patterns and smell. I didn't elaborate on that particular observation, though, since it's a rule in our lab: if you say it smells like something, you bring in the positive control!