bwh: (Default)
bwh ([personal profile] bwh) wrote2004-09-03 12:39 am

Flowers, but not as we know them

We queued for 2 hours this evening to see the Titan Arum plant flowering at the Botanical Gardens in Cambridge. This is the notorious "corpse flower" from Sumatra that is very large and smells like rotting flesh. The plant flowers for only 2 days every 10 or so years, hence the sudden rush to see it. To be honest, it was a little disappointing - it didn't smell that strongly and it wasn't as huge as I'd expected. Still, it is quite special.

Update: I added a link to the Botanical Gardens. They also have a webcam which provides a better view of the plant.

[identity profile] dave-t-lurker.livejournal.com 2004-09-03 08:38 am (UTC)(link)
How big was it? There is no sense of scale in that pic.

[identity profile] womble2.livejournal.com 2004-09-03 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
The base of it was around knee height and the top around head height on me. So I would guess about 1.2 metres tall.

[identity profile] pseudomonas.livejournal.com 2004-09-03 11:16 am (UTC)(link)
Titan Arum sounds like it ought to be a small town in the Fens somewhere.