For Once, Smell of Rotting Flesh Not Emanating from Fraternity House
A voluptuous “corpse flower” is about to unfurl its rare and horrendously stinky flower soon at the University of California’s Botanical Garden at Berkeley.
The compelling features of the Amorphophallus titanium, known also as the Titan arum, corpse flower or “stinky plant,” are its claim as the largest flower-like structure in the plant world and a blossom that emits a fragrance resembling rotten flesh. The plant typically takes at least seven years of growth before it blooms. In this case, the plant is 10 years old… Paul Licht, director of the botanical garden, said he is delighted to be able to share the plant with the public during the garden’s open hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
But he cautioned that time may be of the essence, as the plant is expected to blossom within the next few days, possibly as early as Wednesday (July 13). Once that happens, the smell is at its most intense for about 10 hours; the bloom lasts about 72 hours…
The UC Botanical Garden, located at 200 Centennial Dr. in the midst of Strawberry Canyon just above the campus, hosts 12,800 different species and subspecies of plants, making it one of the largest and most diverse collections in the United States. It also has a large number of rare and endangered California native plants on display, with many of them part of its collection maintained for the national Center for Plant Conservation.
Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and $1 for children ages 3 through 18.
For more information about the status of “Trudy the Titan,” and for photos, see the botanical garden website. Directions to the garden are online as well.
The owner of the flower gets props for comparing it to “a piece of priceless art”. If I get the chance to visit the thing, I’ll take some pictures. If others visit, colorful descriptions of the scent given off by the flower are welcome in comments.
Stinky Flower (Again)
I don’t know about you, but I’m so over this whole “stinky flower” thing. When I first heard about it a few years ago at UC Davis, it was cool. Now it seems everyone who is anyone has a stinky…
Trackback by The Bay Area Is Talking — July 12, 2005 @ 9:14 am
And free for Cal students.
There are cool gopher snakes, newts in the pond. and lots of radical California plants such as their highly maintained vernal pool and a number of rare plants with fewer than 100 individuals in existence. Also, the tropical house has some nice cycads.
Comment by cp — July 12, 2005 @ 10:19 am
Nerd.
Comment by Anon. — July 12, 2005 @ 4:46 pm