What’s The Big Stink? . . .
Vase on the Forest Floor: Symplocarpus. This North American native is stinky, too. (NYC, April)
Flower in the news . . . Flower in the news in New York City:
What’s the Big Stink?
Good News about to bloom:
My friends at the New York Botanical Garden have enjoyed sharing a rare moment with a most distinctive flowering plant:
Amorphophallus titanum is set to bloom.
“What’s the Big Stink?” When the plant flowers the source of that classic phrase may be known.
One may first hear a name: The Corpse Flower.
Omen? As it may have been when one last bloomed in NYC in 1939? Perhaps.
Magnificent? Certain. The scale, the distinctiveness of size and aroma of this plant nurtured “a decade in the making” has, for all that time, communicated enough to us to garner human attention and celebration.
“Bravo!” to . . . THE BLOOM.
— rPs 07 27 2016
Postscript: Visit the New York Botanical Garden and view the Corpse Flower Cam by following this link: NYBG/125 http://www.nybg.org/exhibitions/2016/corpse-flower.php
One may also visit in the field the somewhat similar, and indigenous, Skunk Cabbage , Symplocarpus, across the New York City area in March: https://wildflowersofthewestvillage.com/2016/03/21/anniversary-spring/
Wildflowers of the West Village 
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