Sunday 24 April 2011

The World's Smelliest Flower Is In Bloom,

the only problem being you will have to go to the northern Swiss city of Basel to see it,

the Basel Botanical Gardens expects 10,000 people to see its Amorphophallus titanum, or corpse flower, in full glory before the bloom wilts late Saturday or Sunday, the plant is 17 years old and has never bloomed before, it is the first time in 75 years that one has flowered in Switzerland, visitors haven't been deterred by the strong stench of rotting flesh the flower emits to attract insects for pollination, the 6.6-feet (2-meter) tall flower is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the last one to bloom in Switzerland was 75 years ago,

now for the good news, a few years ago I looked at one of these flowering in Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens, in June 2007, this being the third occasion it has done so, the first bloom was in June 2003, the second at the end of June 2005, so any day now we could be going back to see it again if it continues to flower in June or about then!

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