Corpse Flower

UConn's corpse flower has bloomed, and today's the day to go to Storr's to experience it, according to this account.

The Smell of Decomposing Flesh in the UConn Greenhouse

Quote of the day:

“It smells just like a rotting corpse. In 2004, there was a medical examiner here who came to see it and confirmed that it smelled exactly like a corpse. It has the compounds that a rotting corpse has." -- Clinton Morse, plant growth facilities manager for UConn's ecology and evolutionary biology department.

Those who want to have this olfactory experience for themselves might want to head to UConn’s Storrs campus, where a giant corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanium, is about to bloom for the first time in three years. The flower is in the university's greenhouse, on North Eagleville Road. Judging from its scientific name and its description in the Hartford Courant, the corpse flower not only smells like rotting flesh but bears a passing resemblance to a penis. I'd be interested in a first-person account, should any of my readers see and smell the flower for themselves.