Late this afternoon, upon hearing the corpse flower was beginning to bloom, I dropped everything and ran over to the Botanic Gardens. I mean that literally. I dropped my magazine on the floor and ran down the street, made a right turn, and headed in the direction of the garden’s main gate. The live stream had been running on my computer screen all day, but I wanted to see this in person. It’s not everyday you get to view an Amorphophallus titanium bloom! The event is a rare occurrence and annually only about 5-10 plants bloom in captivity worldwide. I’m not sure how frequently they bloom in nature, but the plant’s native habitat in Sumatra (Indonesia) is being destroyed at a record pace, so I’m sure blooms in the wild are down in number.
This particular event will mark
the first bloom in Denver and the Rocky Mountain states, which is pretty
exciting if you live here and giant blooming plants are your thing. Oh, and the
plant will release an odor (really, a stench) that smells like a rotting corpse
for approximately 48 hours in order to attract its pollinators (the carrion beetle), so there’s that too…
Anyway, about 10 minutes after
leaving my home I was standing in front of the giant plant (see below). It was
so exciting, as I've been watching it grow in size over the past few
weeks. But it became clear that the unraveling at the pinnacle had stopped
and the grand finale would be saved for another evening. Not wanting to
waste an opportunity to check out the garden's Deborah Butterfield exhibit
in its entirety, I walked around in search of her beautiful cast bronze horse
sculptures. They are installed throughout the gardens, posed in various
positions and against a range of natural backdrops. And they are gorgeous!
I hope you enjoy these photos! I
enjoyed taking them with my new camera, which was an early birthday gift from
husband (about 5 months ahead of the really big day since my
old camera just broke). I’m still trying to figure out all the bells and
whistles, but I think I’m off to a good start!
xx,
B
Click here for
a live stream of the corpse flower bloom at the DBG.
And here for additional
information, courtesy of National Geographic.
