stop and smell the flowers

[saint_monkey]

this eclipse is the second rare thing i've seen in recent weeks. the week before last, one of the UW's three "Corpse Flowers" bloomed, (a rare event, the last of the trio to bloom did so in 1999,)it's a huge flower, and the bloom is three feet across, which filled the greenhouse with a stench that (according to the UW police) exactly mimics the smell of a rotting human corpse. (the plant works by luring carrion beetles and flies inside, where a complex system of plant trapdoors holds the bugs and covers them with pollen for three days, at which point it releases them-- the ressurected flies then go one their merry way, to get trapped in, and pollenate any other nearby corpse flowers.) thinking that i might never get the chance to smell a flower that blooms every four years, i ventured in and took a whiff. truly impressive. i don't think it's an experience i will repeat.