Rare flower blooms once every few years, we were lucky enough.
Japan says kusai mono ni futa. Translated literally, it means put a lid on something smelly, usually covering up or hushing up scandals. Our boss made us smell his unwashed socks he had worn for five days straight in the past. We like to have it open – seeing other people endure foul smells is just plain entertaining – instead of putting them on anything we might find.
So when I heard Tokyos Jindai Botanical Gardens said corpse flower had just begun blooming, we decided to calm down as soon as possible. The corpse flower can also be seen as a rash of flammable, often referred to as world’s stinkiest flower, you see.
So-called corpse flower, so-called because smell it emits after blooming, is just like a corpse; only flowers once every few years. Moreover, it blooms just for two days during its cycle.
Indonesia native plant grows corpse flower, few places grow a few. Five blooming corpse flowers have been made by Jindai Botanical Gardens and Tsukuba Experimental Botanical Gardens.
Jindai Botanical Gardens: Past four generations of corpse flower
This corpse flower was particularly exciting for flower fans as both leaves and flowers emerged from the buds at the same time, which has only happened twice in recorded history. One such big event that the park temporarily opened on Mondays since it announced that the flower was due to bloom any day soon. They normally end up closed.!
The plants flowers start blooming in the evening, so our reporter Mariko Ohanabatake drove to the botanical park as the sun set. Mariko took one last breath before starting smell at first night; smell is probably most intense.
Staff guide her towards greenhouse, who gave her advice on ok with bad smells?
But as she opens a door to the greenhouse, she opens the door
Missy seasoned professional from the world was also greeted with a staggering revolting slur that made her laugh!
Mariko could smell the foul aroma of the corpse plant even though she had barely crossed the entrance to the greenhouse. shed understood how the stench radius of the corpse flower was around the plant in that she imagined. It was roughly a arms length around it
Marikos imagined stench radius
But really the smell extended much, much more to this, like this
The stifle spreads more.
Mariko could smell notes of garbage dump in the summer even now, as she stood at a distant distance from the plant. Excellent, but she wasnt at rotting corpse level just yet. Would that change the closer to Mariko’s plant?
corpse flower looked very unique with big leaves growing on the right, red-purple leaves on the left. Flowers can grow to three metres (9.8 feet) in size, but leaf and flower bloomed at a single time and it was a little shorter.
Small size didnt stop it from smelling horrible though, scent worse as Mariko edged closer to plant.
It was almost like Mariko was admiring a piece of modern art with dark nights atmosphere and the unique-looking flower.
Mariko could get up close and get a good whiff of the flower through a stepladder. Emotions of outdoor festival toilets greet a mother as she peered into the plant.
But why does body flower have such a nasty smell? Most flowers evoke sweet scents to attract insects, which subsequently aid them reproduce through pollination. Just as corpse flowers’ unique scent is designed to lock carrion beetles, flesh flies to decaying meat, it works in the same way the foul odour attracts them.
2019 Jindai Botanical Gardens is offering the corpse flower free and free of charge, so that everyone can see it in person. It’s been a rare and unique flower, definitely worth visiting, even though it wont bloom now for at least two years.!
And if you can see it and smell it when there is a bloom, Mariko recommends taking it on the way back in the sun with just a good stomach to help it handle its deathly scent.
Jindai Botanical Gardens / Address: Tokyo-to, Chofu-shi, Jindaiji Motomachi5-31-10 Open 8:30a – 5:00 Website