Stinky Flower With Crude Name Draws Big Crowd

The U.S. Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.C., recently had a packed house. Or packed greenhouse.

They came to see and unfortunately smell the giant corpse flower, whose official name is Amorphallus Titanium. Gee, I wonder why...do I need to let that one sit there a minute?

They rarely bloom---first time in six years for this one---and peak bloom only lasts about 24 hours. But when they do, the stink will have you reaching for the lilac-scented Fabreze! But overflow crowds lined up at the Botanic Gardens till nearly midnight to get a glimpse and a whiff. The corpse flower nickname is because it smells like rotting flesh to attract pollinating insects. I don't think we need to go into why it's called Amorphallus. :-)

DB