Giant Flower Makes Big Stink

The Amorphophallus titanium is the world’s biggest and worst-smelling flower.

The plant, also called titan arum, but popularly known as the corpse flower, blooms only a few times in its 40-year life span, and the bloom lasts for two and a half days at the most.  During the first eight hours, the bloom emits a scent that has been variously described as similar to that of rotting eggs, a dead elephant, an outhouse in sweltering heat—and worse.  But what is putrid to humans is a siren call to the carrion beetles that pollinate the flowers.  They can smell the stench for miles.

What is the lesson here?  For one, don’t write your UTH NEWS article at 8am on Sunday morning.  I forgot, please forgive.  However, the other lesson is…sometimes things that are beautiful to some are not to others and vice versa.  Celebrate individuality and look for the beauty in all things.

Have a great week!

Awesomeness Abounding!

Lee

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Lee's Lines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.