The Worlds Worst Smelling Flowers

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The Worlds Worst Smelling Flowers

January 25th 2012 20:10

Link: waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0602.htm

The Worlds Worst Smelling Flowers
There are a million and one types of flowers in the world and its not surprising that some of them dont smell so sweet. Take the carrion flowers for example. They excrete a smell of rotting flesh that attracts scavenging insects, which is why you dont find them down your local flower shop. So this article is going to explore 3 of the worst smelling plants in the world today and even if you cant smell their pungent pong I am sure you will be equally surprised by their strange looks. Brace yourself before you read this article it may help if you dowse yourself in perfume from Forget-Flowers (choose from Chanel perfume, Ghost perfume, Gucci perfume, Nina Ricci perfume, Jean Paul Gaultier perfume, Britney Spears perfume, Marc Jacobs perfume and more)

The Corpse Flower
The most remarkable of all the fetid flowers is the corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum). It grows in the equatorial tropical rainforests of Sumatran in Indonesia where no one can hear you scream.
The first time this plant was scientifically described was in 1878 by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari. It was then cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew in London in 1889 and there have been have 100 cultivated blooming since then.
It was first bloomed in the United stated in 1937 and became the official flower for the Bronx (because it was also a giant putrid smelling monstrosity?) only to be replaced by the day lily in 2000.
The flower itself is huge. The leaf structure can reach up to 20 ft and 16 ft wide and can weigh up to 200lb and to me it looks like one of the mobile carnivorous plants from Day of the Triffids.

The Rafflesia arnoldii
The Rafflesia arnoldii is another corpse flower which belongs to the same family. This time the flower is much smaller and looks more like an actual flower rather than a 6ft monster but maintaining the colour and texture of rotting flesh.

The arnoldii is hard to find and only grows in the ever decreasing Borneo and Sumatra jungles. This is because it takes many months for the plant to reach sexual maturity and will then only flower for a few days. It must be in close proximity to another arnoldii in order for it to be pollinated by insects.

The plant is thought to be near extinction. People who have arnoldiis growing on their property are encouraged to keep them and charge people to see them. Although persuading people to keep a rotting corpse on their land is hardly appealing.
Stinking gladwyn
I didnt think it was appropriate to just label Rafflesia plants as even though they stink, if they are doing it in the middle of the densest jungle and the insects like it then fine. The Stinking Gladwyn however is smelling away right on my doorstep. It has been labels as stinking because some people find its smell unpleasant if you crush it. I suspect this odour is more prominent to insects, but the smell has been described as beefy.
So that concludes my look at the worlds smelliest plants and even though we cant stand them smell of them at least the insects can and in my mind that keeps the pair of them off in the depths of the Borneo jungles.

For more of these putrid plants check out this page;
Really Long Link

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The Worlds Worst Smelling Flowers

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