Certain tourists stood in queue for as long as two hours to see the facility.
Enthusiasts of flowers are presently thronging towards
Reiman Gardens
, a 17-acre public garden in Ames, Iowa, to see a rare sighting. Affectionally named “Stink Floyd,” the botanic garden’s corpse flower has bloomed—an event it is calling the “Dark Side of the Bloom,” as an homage to the plant’s rock star status.
Corpse flowers
(
Amorphophallus titanum
They are a spectacle to witness because they only flower for 24 to 36 hours once every two to seven years. It takes the plant up to seven years to produce its first bloom, after which it will not flower again for another two to three years. There are less than 1,000 of these plants in existence, with fewer than a dozen blooming each year in the U.S.
The blooming plants are infamous for emitting an awful smell, which is designed to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies. The flower mimics the smell of rotting flesh to trick the insects into visiting and pollinating it.
Reiman Gardens described
it as “a very pungent sour milk/dead fish scent.”
The corpse flower at Reiman Gardens, which is on loan from Iowa State University’s Bessey Greenhouse, started blooming Saturday night. Following the news, the gardens immediately became a popular destination, with people traveling from all over the Midwest to see it, waiting in line for up to two hours. Reiman Gardens even extended its hours over the weekend, staying open until 11 p.m.
“Like an aging rock star in leather pants two sizes too small, Stink Floyd’s bloom continues to hang on this morning. For how much longer, we don’t know. The odor is also still there, slightly–like a musician who has been partying a little too hard for three straight days,” Reiman Gardens cheekily
posted on its Facebook page this morning
about the flower’s progress.
By May 17, the flower had reached a height of 78 inches; these plants have the potential to grow as much as 10 feet tall. Nicknamed Stink Floyd at age 12, this is only its second flowering period. The plant is presently located within the Hughes Conservatory.
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Martha Stewart
