On Saturday afternoon at the Denver Botanic Gardens, dozens of people were lined up to stick their noses near a very smelly flower. (Update: The bloom had closed by Sunday morning, August 7.)
The Gardens announced earlier in the day that one of its corpse flowers had bloomed overnight, putting out word that we'd have 24-48 hours to see and smell it in bloom.
This isn't the same corpse flower that bloomed while we all watched on livestream at the Gardens around this time last year. That one -- a larger plant named Stinky -- won't bloom again for years.
In case you've missed the corpse flower mania, here's the deal: Corpse flowers -- or amorphophallus titanum (go ahead and google the translation) -- bloom for the first time eight to 20 years into their lives. It takes another seven to 10 years for them to bloom again. They smell like decay to attract pollinating insects that normally feed on decaying material.
Littler Stinker is the second corpse flower to ever bloom at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and one of an usually high number of corpse flowers to bloom in the U.S. this year.
The Gardens open at 9 a.m. and last admission at 8 p.m. Admission is $8-$11.50. Go get a whiff.
