School's flower opens to rancid stink

[kristopher]

School's flower opens to rancid stink

SEATTLE (AP) --After nearly three years, the bloom of a rare flower at a Washington state university finally came up, but it didn't smell like roses.

The University of Washington Biology department says its so-called corpse flower opened after midnight and unleashed its stink of rotting meat on the hundreds waiting.

The Indonesian flower attracts pollinating insects by smelling like carrion when it blooms. The department says on its Facebook page that about 550 people visited its botany greenhouse Wednesday night in waves of nausea...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/odd/news/20110610p2g00m0in066000c.html

[ingac70]

1. Are those things really that stinky?

Or do you have to go up and sniff it to catch a whiff?

[lonestarnot]

3. My experience was that you have to get pretty close. But don't touch it with your nose.

[kristopher]

5. Do you like mangos?

The pawpaw tree grew in the area where I grew up, and the fruit is pretty tasty; something like a mango. My mother recently brought me a pawpaw fruit, and after eating it I saved the seeds and planted them, thinking it would be a great addition to our garden. Sometime later I happened to think about it and googled it, only to find that it pollinates by attracting flies to its flowers with a rotten meat smell.

I promptly went out and pulled up the two that had sprouted.

http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/forum/22529.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawpaw

[ingac70]

7. LOL

I don't think the smell would have wafted around your yard like honeysuckle or anything.

[MrScorpio]

2. Some folks have all the fun nt

[nc4bo]

4. Just read that the tip heats itself to about body temperature too

assumed to mimic the body of a mammal.

Nature is so cool! Thanks OP for posting - love learning about things I never knew existed.

[suffragette]

6. Picture of it here

http://www.livescience.com/14550-corpse-flower-blooms.html

[AsahinaKimi]

8. Durian fruit is supposed to smell really bad

But the flavor is supposed to be good. I have never tried one, but would love to.

[MilesColtrane]

9. I got a nice big whiff of Durian last November in a market in Singapore.

I can't imagine actually bringing that close enough to your nose to get it in your mouth.

[HubertHeaver]

10. I couldn't get within 10 feet of one of those after it was opened.