Affectionately known as Mr. Stinky Junior, the Fairchild’s rare Titan Arum is now in bloom for the first time in 18 years!
With a scent that has been compared to that of “rotten eggs,” “day-old roadkill,” and “a sewer,” this might not sound like the most appealing flower to check out in the Fairchild Botanical Gardens, but don’t give up on it just yet and let me tell you why you should totally check it out!
An alien-looking and unpleseantly-smelling flower, the Titan Arum aka the “corpse flower” is one of the rarest flower species out there — Catching it in bloom is even rarer, and it can be a once-in-a-lifetime (maybe twice) experience. These weird flowers usually take years to bloom again, sometimes even decades, and they’re usually only in bloom for a day or so.
Mr. Stinky is the first Titan Arum to bloom at the Fairchild Gardens in 18 years! The garden recently shared a post on Tuesday afternoon, July 20, that the massive flower was ready to “put on a show” at the Whitman Pavillion this week.
When in bloom, besides giving off a scent akin to that of rotting flesh, these can also reach more than 8 feet in height when it blooms, opening to a diameter of 4 feet, according to Fairchild officials. And although Mr. Stinky will most likely not reach those gargantuan proportions, it will still be a spectacle totally worth checking out!
Botanics enthusiasts are also in luck, because according to the Gardens, another Titan Arum, the one at Zoo Miami is also in bloom. This means that botanists will be able to cross-pollinate these two specimens in real-time. The once-in-lifetime pollination and research will be done by Dylan Morales, a rising senior at BioTECH Richmond Heights, the world’s only Botany and Zoological magnet school according to the Fairchild Gardens.
While it looks like Mr. Stinky hadn’t reached its full bloom yet as of Tuesday night, the Fairchild Gardens announced they’d be keeping their followers posted so you can go check this rare occurrence out yourself and pay a visit to Mr. Stinky — so keep an eye out!
See also: This Enchanting Garden Tucked Away In Delray Holds A Piece Of Japan In South Florida
Featured image: Twitter / @FairchildGarden]