The corpse flower (Amorphophallius titanium) is found on the island of Sumatra. It has bloomed only 29 times at botanical gardens in the U.S. This was #30. The flower smells of rotting flesh to attract hundreds of flies for pollination. There wasn't much of that smell when we saw the flower and that was an indicator the flower was in decline. The can weigh 30 pounds or more. The flowering is a boon to the Houston Museum of Natural History as droves of people have visited and purchased corpse thousands of dollars in merchandise and tickets. The museum stayed open 24/7 while the flower remained open. My friend Dan and I visited the plant at 2:00 am on Sunday morning. Yes, that 2:00 am because all the tickets were sold out until then. We arrive to a line of people who made this the last event of their drunken night after hitting the clubs of Houston. The line of around 100 people was probably continuous starting 4 hours prior. With a situation like this the museum had to herd the people forward and allow only a one minute gaze. Nothing I could do about that. We came, we saw, we took pictures and drove the 60 miles back to Angleton. What a drag. Rack time – 0430.
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