What's that smell? Death. Famed corpse flower blooms once again
If you can't get to the New York Botanical Garden, you can re-create the smell by leaving a bunch of raw meat out in the sun.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
What's that smell, New York? Sheesh, Roger, put your shoes back on, it's like you dipped your socks in rotting cheese or something and...oh, it's not that?
Ah, it's the corpse flower at the New York Botanical Garden, and it's blooming right now live online.
The rare plant, Amorphophallus titanum, also known as titan-arum, is as infamously stinky as the Bronx during a garbage strike. And in true Big Apple form, the garden's website is pretty proud of it.
"Each day of careful tending and feeding has led up to this moment: a brief yet glorious window in which the enormous plant (up to 8 feet high) will unfurl, displaying the striking red interior and uncanny scent to which it owes its name," the site reads. "This is the first time that a blooming titan-arum has been put on display at the Garden since 1939, and this unique plant is unpredictable -- it may be in flower for only one or two days."
During the plant's brief bloom, it releases an odor that's been compared to rotting flesh, and that gives it the nickname "corpse flower." The plant started blooming at about 3:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, so nasal masochists who want to smell it for themselves are encouraged to get to the garden on Friday for the full putrid pleasure. We're guessing Daryl Dixon of "The Walking Dead" smells a lot like this pretty much all the time.
The corpse flower also made the news on Wednesday, when a trailer for the new Netflix "Gilmore Girls" series came out, and Lorelai and Rory Gilmore discussed its stench.
When Rory told mom Lorelai she didn't think Amy Schumer would want to be her friend (this is the kind of thing regularly discussed on "Gilmore Girls"), Lorelai protested. "It's not like...I have that plant strapped to me that only blooms once every 50 years and smells disgusting." C'mon, Lorelai, Stars Hollow's not that far from New York, get on up there and live your dream.
Those of us many miles from New York can watch the bloom online via the garden's webcam. And until the invention of internet Smell-o-vision, we can re-create the smell by leaving a bunch of raw meat out in the sun.