The rare Sumatran titan arum is open at the Kenneth Post Lab Greenhouses at Cornell University. Watch the people photograph it in real time. Flower photographers regnant!
Mike
(Thanks to Bobby B.)
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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
Featured Comment by Andreas Weber: "From my experience with 'La Diva' in the Stuttgarter Wilhelma I can say that the smell varies a lot in intensity from one flower to the next. And some of it's smaller brethren easily dwarf the 'titan' in that regard ;-) I've been rather close to the big one in July 2008:
[If flower pics be your thang, Andreas has some nice ones on his website. —Ed.]
Added by Andreas 3/20: "It's a good thing that I don't have to pay for traffic on my site. The last two days saw about as much hits as the entire year before."
Featured Comment by J. Robert Lennon: "I was there last night! There's something inspiring about watching hundreds of people show up just to see a flower bloom. And stick their noses into its reeking maw. As soon as we got home my wife threw all her clothes into the laundry and still felt personally tainted when she got up this morning."
Featured Comment by Steve Wolfe: "I shot a timelapse using my D700 a couple years ago of a Titan arum opening at Ohio State University. My wife added titles, stills, and (licensed) music. If you're interested, here's a link to our video on YouTube. By the way, I sat with that smelly thing for six hours to shoot this. After a while the odor kind of grows on you :-) ."
Featured Comment by David Dyer-Bennet: "I don't want to think what sort of pollinator that flower is built for. From the smell, apparently a predator of some sort, too. I'm pretty sure I don't want to be there when it shows up!"
Mike replies: It is clearly meant to be pollinated by zombies. I wouldn't hang around it at night, just to be safe.
I had a suspicion about this flower which was confirmed by the link. It's known as the "Corpse Flower," which tells you what it smells like when it opens.
From this we can deduce it's primary pollinators are flies. We have Carrion Flower vines here in the Midwest and they smell similarly and have the same pollinators.
Posted by: TBannor | Monday, 19 March 2012 at 11:15 AM
Saw one in the wild about 6 years ago. Very impressive "flower".
Posted by: Eric | Monday, 19 March 2012 at 12:39 PM
I saw the one that opened in Madison about a decade or so ago. I saw it a few days after blooming and the bottom was filled several inches deep with maggots. The smell (which was past peak) was merely awful rather than the Lovecraftain level of insanity-inducing vileness that it apparently had upon first blooming.
Posted by: Nicholas Condon | Monday, 19 March 2012 at 06:45 PM
Was in Ithaca on Sunday, wish I'd know about this. Maybe I'll take the girls up tomorrow night for a look, and maybe a quick picture...
Posted by: Radiopaque | Monday, 19 March 2012 at 07:11 PM
Is it edible?? It sure looks like it!
With best regards.
Stephen
Posted by: Stephen S. Mack | Monday, 19 March 2012 at 07:13 PM
Thanks Mike!! Never saw one.
Posted by: Hélcio J. Tagliolatto | Monday, 19 March 2012 at 07:31 PM
Back home in Malaysia we have the Rafflesia, another big flower with a rotten scent. I once had the pleasure of watching one bloom, unfortunately it wasn't very pungent. Stuck my head over the flower for nothing (except getting face-hugged by flies).
Posted by: Zeeman | Monday, 19 March 2012 at 09:50 PM
No macro mode for this one.
Posted by: Don | Tuesday, 20 March 2012 at 04:36 AM
Mike-I'm glad you noticed the bevy of excited photographers via the livestream. Some seemed attempting to visually document the smell by leaning in and shooting as far down as they could into the bloom.
I found myself getting caught up starting over the weekend with the livestream. When it bloomed it was like Christmas. From there people watching took over. I know, I'm easily amused but amused nonetheless.
Posted by: Bob Burnett | Tuesday, 20 March 2012 at 10:59 AM
Thanks a lot for the feature (bit more than a featured comment actually, with the picture and all)!
Observations:
- It's a good thing that I don't have to pay for traffic on my site. The last two days saw about as much hits as the entire year before ;-)
- Of this years worth of page hits one third were from Safari, another third using Firefox, followed by IE as distant third with 1/6 of all visits.
- And only exactly 2/7 of the public photos on my site are "flowers and blossoms" ...
Posted by: Andreas Weber | Tuesday, 20 March 2012 at 12:43 PM
Thanks Mike! I had a chance to see it on Monday. I took this photograph while there http://500px.com/photo/6038189
Posted by: Darryl Ngai | Saturday, 24 March 2012 at 04:03 PM