Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community (https://thetfp.com/tfp/)
-   General Discussion (https://thetfp.com/tfp/general-discussion/)
-   -   Uninvited Wedding Guests (https://thetfp.com/tfp/general-discussion/155228-uninvited-wedding-guests.html)

genuinegirly 07-23-2010 06:23 AM

Uninvited Wedding Guests
 
Didn't you dream of having the overwhelming smell of rotting flesh wafting through the air at your wedding?

Corpse Flowers like to bloom at just the wrong time.

UC Berkeley's botanical garden has a corpse flower about to bloom, and one just finished its stink-fest earlier this month. It's prime wedding season at their botanical garden, but someone at the associated press thought to write an article about the wedding that is affected by the corpse flower in Texas.

Enjoy!

Quote:

'Corpse Flower' Bloom Could Stink Up Texas Wedding
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:54 a.m. ET

HOUSTON (AP) -- The flower girl at Jessica Zabala's wedding is purple, six-feet-tall, uninvited and smells like dead bodies.

She is Lois, a rare ''corpse flower,'' deemed the world's stinkiest bud.

Lois is unexpectedly blooming in the Houston Museum of Natural Science, in the room right next to where Zabala is marrying Jonathan Smith on Saturday.

''I don't need a florist anymore,'' Zabala laughs. ''I've got Lois.''

The flower is an Amorphophallus titanum, which has only ever bloomed 29 times in the United States. It's happened twice in Texas, but never before at the museum's Cockrell Butterfly Center, which hosts about 50 weddings a year.

''I did not know that Lois was quietly sprouting in the greenhouse across the street,'' Zabala said, donning an ''I Love Lois'' button given to her by the museum.

Deforestation has left the flower endangered in its native tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, said Nancy Greig, the butterfly center's director. Six years ago, the center paid $75 for a ''little walnut-sized tuber'' from a Raleigh, N.C., nursery that specializes in exotic plants.

The flower's dead-body smell attracts the flies and beetles it needs to pollinate. Many only bloom once. It can only blossom after it is seven years old and weighs 30 pounds, exactly the size of Houston's plant.

Lois was about two-thirds of the way to full bloom by Thursday and between 3,000 and 4,000 people were visiting daily. She will only stay open about two days, and the smell generally dissipates within 12 hours, Greig said.

Museum experts initially thought she would bloom two weeks ago and Greig was certain the stench would overtake the museum by Thursday.

''But she has not turned on the funk yet,'' Greig said.

So Zabala and Smith remain uncertain. Will their wedding stink?

Lois will decide.


dogzilla 07-23-2010 07:01 AM

I visited a butterfly exhibit in central Massachusetts Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory & Gardens in March of this year and they had a flower that if it wasn't this exact species, was similar. The smell from this flower was pretty noticeable when you got close to it and not that pleasant. It wasn't a scent I'd associate with flowers.

JStrider 07-23-2010 08:48 PM

I went and saw this flower Wednesday night. unfortunately(fortunately) it was only partially open and hadn't started smelling yet. but still an impressive flower.

edit: heres the webcam if your interested. http://www.hmnsmedia.org/CorpseFlower/

yournamehere 07-24-2010 12:10 PM

Must be a refreshing change if it's strong enough to mask the refineries.

raging moderate 07-25-2010 03:57 PM

I think that's pretty cool. i'd like to see that huge, stinky flower

Dr. Black 07-26-2010 02:12 PM

yeah I would like to see that flower, too far of a trip to see it for me, but it would be nice to see it at some point.

Giant Hamburger 07-26-2010 02:31 PM

My amorphophallus titanum only comes out at weddings where I have had too much vodka.

Sue 07-26-2010 10:11 PM

I had the completely wrong impression of what this thread was about until I looked this up on google images. Wow. I'm actually really curious to smell it at least once. :D

hiredgun 07-27-2010 12:10 AM

What I find most amusing about this is that 'zabala' more or less means 'garbage' in Arabic...

Sorry, I should really be sleeping...

genuinegirly 07-27-2010 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hiredgun (Post 2808804)
What I find most amusing about this is that 'zabala' more or less means 'garbage' in Arabic...

Ha! That add a bit of humor to the situation.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 01:56 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360