Saturday, June 2, 2007

Smells like death

This incredibly beautiful, flagrantly large and voluptuously curved flower is a Voodoo Lily. For looks alone (and I mean ALONE), I have to say I think it's my favorite cultivar that grows outside in the Pacific N.W. It's just beautiful. And, it smells like week-old roadkill. These grow just south of our yard on our neighbor's side. If it weren't for the smell I'd have them everywhere I could spare. When the wind's right, however, the fume bunches up on our porch and smells like an opossum died underneath the steps. It's REAL bad.


This second picture is to put the flower in context (conveniently shows off a bit of our yard too, the "pretty in pink" side of things). These aren't the largest lillies we've had, yet the flower alone is still pushing 16" tall. If you click on the top picture, you may be able to see the bluebottle flies in the flower -- the pollinator for these morbid flowers. Some of the weirdest flowers in the world are pollinated this way, including the largest flower on record, Rafflesiaa arnoldii, or Corpse Flower.

6 comments:

Bpaul said...

Hm, I take letter recognition off, and this is the first post I get...

I am thinking this isn't my dear friend Rodrigo in Austin Texas.

I don't know Shocho, I may have to turn the word recognition thingy back on.

Bpaul said...

You know, even if the dogs don't care (how many times have you seen dogs roll in carcasses with delight), a good sized planting of these would sure as hell keep the OWNERS away.

I watch your blog too Bob, we share some interests -- fishing and mushrooming not the least of which.

Welcome

Bp

Catherine Just said...

ok, off topic, jerry and I went shoe shopping and we were sitting there waiting for the guy to come back with the shoes and jerry looks at me dead pan and says
" shewz "
and he keeps saying it - dead pan until I crack up.
HAD to share.

Bpaul said...

Perfect! We pull that with each other all the time, cracks me up every time.

Catherine Just said...

shewz

Bpaul said...

OMG Shewz