Something stinks in D.C. (not what you think)
WASHINGTON — Residents of our nation's capital had yet another reason, besides gridlocked politics, to hold their noses Tuesday. The so-called corpse flower began blooming at the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory at the base of Capitol Hill.
The flower, officially an Amorphophallus titanum, was scheduled to bloom late last week and on Tuesday it began opening around 4 a.m. ET.
While it is blooming, the flower will smell like a combination of garlic, fish, diapers and rotting meat. The stench is designed to attract pollinators in the wild.
Tuesday's bloom is the first from this particular plant, which is 6 years old, according to the Botanic Garden's website. The U.S. Botanic Garden previously displayed blooming corpse flowers in 2003, 2005 and 2007, 2010 and 2013. More than 130,000 people came to see the plant in person in 2013, while more than 650,000 others watched the live webstream, according to the website.
The flower's putrid smell is most potent during peak bloom at night into the early morning, according to the garden. The Conservatory stayed open until 11 p.m. Tuesday for people to get a sniff of the pungent plant.
On Twitter, users reported standing in line for hours to view the plant.
Gardeners put the plant on view to the public July 22, when it was about 3.5 feet tall, according to the website. Tuesday it was more than 7 feet tall.
According to the website, the titan arum does not have an annual blooming cycle, but emerges from, and stores energy in, a huge underground stem called a "corm." The plant blooms only when enough energy accumulates, so the plant could bloom every few years or wait more than a decade. The stinky plants require warm temperatures and high humidity, so botanic gardens offer a good growing environment for them.
Amorphophallus titanum is native to the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and first became known to science in 1878, according to the website.
A similar plant bloomed Friday at the New York Botanical Garden.
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