Rancid ‘Corpse Flower’ ready to bloom in Vancouver
Posted July 11, 2018 11:56 am.
Last Updated July 11, 2018 1:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A rare flower with a strong – but nasty – smell is about to bloom at the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park.
The Corpse Flower, known for its especially rancid smell, is ready to bloom.
The conservatory’s Bruce MacDonald explains the Corpse Flower is something of a spectacle..
“It’s from Sumatra, Indonesia, and it’s extremely rare. It’s a rain forest flower and it’s extremely large. It’s beautiful in it’s own way, like it’s really unusual…we’re thinking this thing is going to top out at about six-and-a-half feet tall with maybe a three or four foot wide flower. It’s quite sizable–it’s bigger than your average person.”
And it smells like — you guessed it — a corpse.
“It’s absolutely horrible, it’s like why would you want to come and smell that? It’s supposed to smell like rotting garbage and dead meat. But, when we get it blooming at the conservatory, it should fill the entire conservatory for about 24 to 36 hours.”
Blooms happen years apart–most plants take seven to ten years to store enough energy to bloom for the first time according to the conservatory. The one in Queen Elizabeth park is only six years old, so MacDonald says they didn’t actually expect it to bloom this year.
“The flower isn’t fully open yet, we’re not really sure when the flower is going to open.”
He recommends checking out Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for notifications when the bloom opens up.
They’re also running a contest to name it – click here to offer your suggestion!
-With files from John Ackermann
