Last weekend, the Amorphophallus titanum flower raised a stink by refusing to bloom into its magnificently smelly form at the New York Botanical Garden. Crowds had gathered at the garden, but were let down when the flower refused to live up to its maladorous reputation, which many have described as "a combination of garlic, fish, diapers and rotting meat."
At the conservatory, photographer Sai Mokhtari said that the flower was acting pricey enough to put off a "few really entitled millennials (sorry but so true), who were acting offended that the thing didn't bloom for them."
Now, why does the flower smell so bad?
The credit goes to a number of diverse molecules that smell rotten on their own, and also tend to attract flies, beetles, and people to its "cup-like bloom". One of the molecules, trimethylamine, hits you like rotting fish, while another, isovaleric acid, is "the cheesy, sweaty odor responsible for terrible gym sock smells."
Said National Geographic: "To humans, the corpse flower is one of the world's stinkiest plants. But to dung beetles and flies, it smells like opportunity. "It makes them think there's rotten meat somewhere to lay their eggs, and then that helps the corpse flower to get pollinated," [said] Mo Fayyaz, the greenhouse and garden director at the University of Wisconsin's department of botany.
This is an Indonesian rain forest plant that can shoot up to 12 feet. Even though the purple-green plant seems like a huge giant bud, it is composed of hundreds of tiny (smelly) flowers.
It bloomed last in 2013. But the plant about to bloom this time is different, and is flowering for the first time in six years.
Through a live cam, the NYBG has kept the public informed about the plant in the Enid Haupt Conservatory. It has worked through the social media---notably Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter---to update the curious. The website explained: "After a weekend of anticipation, the high temperatures in New York did not impact the Corpse Flower's growth as our experts anticipated. The plant is still progressing, but its bloom remains difficult to predict."
The public is just dying for the garbage smell, but the NYBG staffers are suffering due to constant exposure. They have been asked to wear masks and also rotate their shifts. As one employee said: the employees were "told to put Vicks in our nose if we think the smell will bother us."
Though it normally closes at 5 p.m., NYBG is planning to stay open until 8 p.m. and keep the doors open until 11 p.m. during peak bloom.
So if you are far away, you can at least watch the live stream. The corpse flower will open for at least 36 hours and then shrivel up.
