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Showing posts from April, 2017

A Giant Flower that is Strange in More than One Way

Do you like flowers? What would a giant, deep red and purple flower smell like? If you knew that flower rarely bloomed and stayed open for only 48 hours, would you smell it? I did … but I would think twice before doing it again. Disgusting ! The Scent The Titan Arum (Scientific name: Amorphophallus titanum ), better known as the Corpse Flower, has a scent that I describe as a sweltering garbage dumpster, filled with used athlete’s sweat socks and rotten food on a sizzling summer’s day. The stink is strongest during the first 4 hours after the bloom starts to open and slowly fades over 2 days. The reason for the putrid, rotting meat stench is to attract beetles and flies for pollination. Temperature The foul fragrance is not the only impressive thing about the Corpse Flower. The bloom heats up to about 36 degrees Celsius, at least 9 degrees higher than the surrounding area, to help disperse the scent. Growth On average, the bloom height is about 3 meters tall, m
Welcome to my new blog Strange Naturally . What inspired this blog is my curiosity of all the strange things that happen in nature or naturally. I hope that you share my fascination, and share your thoughts and comments with me as a post what I discover.