Wisconsin Corpse Plant To Bloom Again

V_IL_Len writes "The University of Wisconsin's original Amorphophallus titanum, or 'corpse plant' known as Big Bucky is ready to bloom and emit its intensely malodorous stench. The plant only blooms a few times in its 40 year life span and each bloom lasts only 2-3 days. Its stench attracts carrion beetles and flesh flies to pollinate it. See this link for photos and live stream of the bloom."

Fantastic

[BiggyP]

Unfortunately the best i can do at home is A. Paeonifolius

Re:Fantastic

[subtropolis]

Unfortunately the best i can do at home is A. Paeonifolius

Who's this Paeonifolius you're talking about? You have your neighbour buried in the basement or something?

Re:What Does This Have To Do With Technology?

[BiggyP]

It's simpler than that, this is a nerd thing, plant nerds rather than computer nerds, but still.

I'm sure no one will mind bringing...

[Phoenixhunter]

...my pet skunks.

No really, I got them de-clawed.

Re:I'm sure no one will mind bringing...

[rleibman]

I doubt skunks have claws, IIRC, they are in the muselidae family (related to otters, minks, ferrets, weasels) and they don't have claws, not like cats do anyway; they have nails.

Re:I'm sure no one will mind bringing...

[MyLongNickName]

... and still people claim Mary Jane doesn't cause brain damage...

Slashdotters are immature, but...

[typobox43]

Does the "It's funny, laugh" category on this one have anything to do with Amorphophallus meaning "malformed penis"? Penis... hehehehehehehehe.

Re:Slashdotters are immature, but...

[PornMaster]

Named, of course, after your smelly "thing", no doubt.

Dude, shower sometimes.

Ha!

[subtropolis]

But with a nick like yours...

Amorphophallus

[amliebsch]

Anybody care to guess at the Latin translation of this word?

Re: Amorphophallus

[BrynM]

Anybody care to guess at the Latin translation of this word?

This [slashdot.org] person did.

Re: Amorphophallus

[jridley]

It's already in (pseudo) latin. You mean english translation maybe?

Re: Amorphophallus

[BiggyP]

almost, but not quite. It's an inflorescence, of which the Spadix is a part. As for forming fruit, only each female flower can do so, with one seed per fruit.

Re: Amorphophallus

[BiggyP]

ah, ok then

Re: Amorphophallus

[NaruVonWilkins]

Not that it's real Latin. It's the bioscientific gobbledygook that folks who aren't classically trained learn how to deal with. :)

Apparently...

[guyfromindia]

It also attracts Nerds...

Re:Apparently...

[errittus]

No no...wrong species...your thinking of Tabulatopus Gamium. Oddly enough grows Warhammer40k figurines on the trunk to draw nerds together to pollenate the plant...ensuring it's survival.

Re:Apparently...

[pipingguy]

As an expression of how much I enjoyed this, I give you a quote from my favorite human, Steve Martin: "Do you ever wonder where all the farts go?... They go into the atmospere and form the Fart Zone. It's just above the ozone layer. This is why we MUST PROTECT THE OZONE LAYER."

The foregoing was stolen from some website, may I ma ma moo moo to the banana patch now?

Live stream

[Dancin_Santa]

I spent an inordinate amount of time watching that live stream last time this thing was blooming.

3AM drunk frat boys trying to compare "equipment" with the flower is something that is burned into my brain forever.

And I love it!

Re:Live stream

[BiggyP]

It's hard to believe that anyone could fail to compare favourably to the flowers, do you mean the inflorescence as a whole?

I saw/smelled one of these

[udderly]

We have a plant conservatory here in Cincinnati that has one of these (or something like it). It bloomed a few years ago. It was awful.

Re:I have four of them in my backyard.

[rah1420]

There is a chemical in the plant odor that causes hallucinations. Two of them bloomed at the same time, and it caused some of my neighbors to seek psychological counsel because of hearing whispers and seeing shadows.

The botanist reporting on the progress on Big Bucky did report that he was feeling a little "spaced out." :)

Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[TheFlyingGoat]

- Violent Femmes
- Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band
- Summerfest
- Willem Dafoe (spelling?)
- Apostle Island National Lakeshore
- lots of beer & cheese
- polka music
- Green Bay Packers
- Ben Sheets
- 1st NBA pick
- lake effect snow
- UW halloween party
- Milwaukee Art Museum
- more lakes than Minnesota
- Bodeans (you know.. the Friends theme? :/ )
- me :)

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[mwigmani]

- Bodeans (you know.. the Friends theme? :/)

Sorry bro, The Rembrandts did the Friends' theme ("I'll Be There for You"), and the Bodeans did the theme ("Closer to Free") from Party of Five.

I hate myself for knowing that.

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[TheFlyingGoat]

Damn, you're right. I'm pretty sure I knew that, but would never claim so. You're brave. :)

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[DashEvil]

I also hate you for knowing that.

;)

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[TheFlyingGoat]

Shit.. almost forgot:
- Laverne & Shirley
- Happy Days
- That 70's Show
- Step By Step :(

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[Lt.Hawkins]

No, the rembrants did the Friends theme. The Bodeans did "Closer to Free", the themesong for some other 90s teen drama.

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[Eskarel]

Tragically it also has lots of hicks, and a higher incidence of really creepy serial killers(Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein) than is natural for a state of it's size.

I could attack some of your best stuff list too, as I used to live there and have been to most of them, but I won't.

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[Ark42]

- lake effect snow

No, let me tell you, I've lived in both WI and MI, and WI does not have lake effect snow. The wind just does not blow that way. There is a ton more snow in MI, especially on the west coast of MI, not that it is anything to brag about really. Long winters and short summers suck.

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[ignorant_coward]

My God, 10 replies and no one mentioned the Osh Kosh air show!

Are you people really from Wisconson or are you just pretending?

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[Detritus]

They also forgot the annual Pardeeville Watermelon Seed-Spitting and Speed-Eating Contest.

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[jafiwam]

Que some guy from Texas with a much bigger list....

You forgot;

- largest radio trivia contest in the world
- Mimi (Drew Carey show)
- Bratfest
- Milwaukee Mile
- Horicon Marsh
- Willam Defoe
- John McArthy
- John Birch Society
- More lakes than Minnesota

You can take the Halloween Party off the list. Its not the UW that bears the brunt its the City of Madison, and the mayor has a personal ventetta against it after all the damage. State street is likely to be fenced off and closed this year.

Re:Wisconsin Does Have The Best Stuff!

[ShortSpecialBus]

You can thank people from out of state for that. The bulk of the arrests are people from Minnesota or other states - the people actually living here did very little of the damage.

I managed to avoid the riots this year but got caught up in them the year before trying to get away. Not a lot of fun.

Corpse plant is the best argument...

[geneing]

IMHO, corpse plant is the best argument against "intelligent design". :)

Re:Corpse plant is the best argument...

[nrlightfoot]

I think it's an argument that God has a twisted sense of Humor.

Re:Corpse plant is the best argument...

[Koiu Lpoi]

And so are you :)

Re:Corpse plant is the best argument...

[Rufus88]

I think the Zebra already proves that. Sharp black and white stripes in a fuzzy green and brown jungle? WTF did the world look like when these things were evolving? And how do they manage to survive today?

Re:Corpse plant is the best argument...

[fr2asbury]

They survive, because they resemble horses and people have a soft spot for horses, otherwise they'd be completely dead.

Re:Oh there are others...

[symbolic]

Any of Dubya's speeches, for example.

Plants that shouldn't exist

[tyler_larson]

BYU has a Gingo tree [wikipedia.org]. It's in a Phylum (or Division if you're a biologist) of its own, and was originally believed extinct. The tree was a goodwill gift from some tibetan monks or something, so they couldn't just stuff it away in a greenhouse. And it's endangered so they can't get rid of it.

The tree is unfortunately a female one (yes, there are males too), so it produces fruit. The fruit smells like vomit, and in fact has the same "simpathy puking" effect on people as any normal pool of vomit would. The s

Re:Plants that shouldn't exist

[kayen_telva]

every city in the US has hundreds of them
were you thinking they are rare ?
they are a wicked cool tree though...great for urban areas

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

[matt.jones]

One of these just bloomed in SF - I wasn't able to make it, but apparently it was interesting (if you're into that sort of thing). Read about it here [sfgate.com]

For those who want to grow their own

[BiggyP]

There's always ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ca tegory=42207&item=4386828334 [ebay.co.uk]
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ca tegory=20524&item=4387196761 [ebay.co.uk]

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Happened last year, too

[mattOzan]

An Amorphophallus titanum named "Tabitha the Titan" bloomed last August [ucdavis.edu] at University of California, Davis. Two more, "Ted" & "Tammy," are expected to bloom again this summer. That's a whole lot of stink.

Re:Happened last year, too

[jrumney]

One at Kew Gardens in London bloomed earlier this year too. Another bloomed about 3 years ago.

News for nerds?

Enter Genetic Engineering

[Anonymous Coward]

Good Scientist:

Change the scent to a fragrant one and make it bloom more often.

Evil Scientist:

Cross it with a venus flytrap and consume the passersby too stupid to watch it bloom.

Re:Enter Genetic Engineering

[Torgo's Pizza]

Writer:

Think of the idea first and call it "Little Shop of Horrors". Rake in the cash from the Broadway and movie rights.

This SHOULD be news!

[NineNine]

Instead of a body count and a titilating expose into Britney's Spears choice of toothpaste, THIS is what SHOULD make news! Imagine how cool it would be if we lived in a country full of intelligent, interesting people who thought that this was real news. That professor explaining the situation was awesome!!

Re:This SHOULD be news!

[Barlo_Mung_42]

[Off topic but fuck it]

The body count [in the "war" in Iraq] shouldn't be news?!? It should be in the news MORE. All we ever here is how many Americans have died as though that is all that maters. I've never heard any of the main stream news give an account of how many people [iraqbodycount.net] have died. My other, more light hearted reply was going to be about the contrast between your "titilating expose into Britney's Spears" quote and your "Get free porn here" sig. :)

Re:This SHOULD be news!

[Koiu Lpoi]

Ever notice how on the news you never see dead bodies? You never see blood? You never see real human suffering?

The media learned its lession from Vietnam.

oh. my. god.

[wankledot]

That thing is straight out of nightmares. Seriously, it scares the fuck out of me... I want one.

Re:oh. my. god.

[BiggyP]

Well, if you want something with a similarly hellish scent and appearance but of a slightly smaller stature, maybe you should try one of these [pipex.com]

Re:oh. my. god.

[wankledot]

It's more the size/shape than the smell. I already have some pretty large odd plants in the yard, like this one [wikipedia.org] Mine is still growing, the biggest leaves are only about 3-4' across.

Something about plants that look large and/or weird enough to eat you, or take off a finger or two really fascinates me.

Re:oh. my. god.

[BiggyP]

Those are great if you have room for them, if you're after large plants then a. paenifolius won't disappoint, it can produce a petiole in excess of 2.5m tall.

Re:oh. my. god.

[UserGoogol]

Get out of my nightmares and into my car!

Well,

[c-reus]

I don't think I geeky enough just yet to watch a live stream of a flower blooming. You may call me an insensitive clod now.

Re:Well,

[Anonymous Coward]

You are an insensitive clod now.

Feed Me Seymour!!

[Adrilla]

Am I the only one who thinks of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors [imdb.com]?

Not open on Saturday?

[jfoust2]

Geez. All the effort of hype and PR, and these State-employed lifers can't open the greenhouse on a Saturday.

How else?

[DoorFrame]

If you can think of a better way to produce corpses, I'd like to hear it.

I'm waiting

[sonictheboom]

for Aroma over IP

Re:I'm waiting

[Mr2cents]

I want to see an aroma blocker plugin in firefox.

Perfect example of a niche that doesn't need to be

[NotQuiteReal]

...doesn't need to be filled, that is.

Of course, I'd rather all the attention be paid to this stinky plant, than have those same people paying attention to my young son's stinky gym shoes.

Such a plant could cease to exist and cause no crises whatsoever, just going to show, if something is rare enough, maybe nothing else will depend on it for food!

Why is this news?

[NaruVonWilkins]

Several universities across the country have many of these plants - the University of Washington has several, such that there's a bloom at least every year or two.

Re:Why is this news?

[BiggyP]

Indeed that is a very special flower, the largest in the world and a parasite too. Is it something that we can only see growing wild though?

Why is this news?

[TitusC3v5]

Virginia Tech [vt.edu] has the same thing, and I'm sure many more do as well.

little known fact

[circletimessquare]

after blooming the plant says in a baritone male voice "feed me, seymour, feed me!" and then goes to broadway to do a song and dance number and eat a dentist

Feed Me!

[nathanh]

Feed Me, Seymour!

Oh, The Smell...

[__aaclcg7560]

And people complain that Marigolds stink.

No More Blaming the Dog

[kingofalaska]

Get one of these, and your dog will be happy. At least my dog will, who has been (sometimes) unfairly blamed for noxious odors. On the other hand, she likes to roll in stinky things, for what reason I can't imagine, and she DOES fart. Not only does it make a sound, but the stench is impressive, especially after she eats some pizza bones.

Have I said too much?

KOA

Giant Missile Defense Radar Sails [blogspot.com]

Stench

[gauss314]

Its stench attracts carrion beetles and flesh flies to pollinate it.

Is this a plant or a politician?

Old news

[ross.w]

The one in the Sydney Botanical Gardens already did this last year.

Here's Why This One Is Special

[Anonymous Coward]

After seeing far too many posts asking why this is news considering their local arboretum has had one bloom, too, and not seeing it properly explained in the links, I thought I'd explain.

Big Bucky is special because it may very well set a new world's record for largest flower (inflorescence, actually). When it last bloomed in 2001, it fell just a few inches shy of the then record which had stood since 1932 (though the record now is held by a 2003 plant in Bonn) and as of a week ago was well on its way to

First-hand account.

[TheOriginalRevdoc]

I saw a Titan Arum flower at the Sydney Botanic Gardens last year. The stench isn't what I'd describe as overpowering - it's actually a quite faint odour. I thought I reminiscent of old, dried-out roadkill.

The plant is quite weird. Even when not in flower, it looks strange - kindof fleshy and too symmetrical.

Once the flower opens, it fades very quickly, so you have to be quick.

Arum Italicum

[Senor_Programmer]

or Italian Arum [google.com] live in my Atlanta GA back yard. They have already bloomed, lost most of leaves, and are showing seeds. They make good winter foliage plants and do well in well drained rocky soil (old cementatious roofing shingles here). It will pretty much become invisible in another month and not show again until fall.

30 Mbps stream!

[ssstraub]

For those of you who can't stand your piddly little 384 kbps stream [wisc.edu]

...and are feeling unfulfilled by your 1.5 Mbps stream [wisc.edu]

...Don't worry. They have set up an experimental 30 Mbps DV multicast stream [wisc.edu] , complete with it's own free DVTS player [wide.ad.jp] so you can catch all this incredibly FAST paced action, as it happens!

Great picture of a "corpse plant" here:

[callipygian-showsyst]

There's a great picture of a corpse plant [callipygian.com] here. It's in 3D, so you'll need red/cyan glasses to view it. (Image was processed with the Callipygian 3D [callipygian.com] software that was featured on TechTV.

OT: WMP stream

[EvilStein]

You know, I hate to say it, but even the 384kbps stream looks pretty damn good. I'm watching leaves fluttering around in the wind and it's not dropping any frames.

Re:OT: WMP stream

[Epsillon]

Ah, but did you see the four idiots with a camera waving and shouting "Hellooo!" to the webcam? There's either a big sign that lights up "behave like a dick" when someone connects to the stream or these people have no life. I thought we got over the "Hi, mom! I'm on TV!" thing in the eighties.

Here's what I would like to see on the webcam instead of morons: Tak one of those morons, any of them, I don't care which. Now take deformed dick plant and shove it up his left nostril, firmly. Now cork the right nost

I Saw it Yesterday...

[kravlor]

... after my lunch break. (I work at UW-Madison.) This is one _big_ flower. Unfortunately (fortunately?), I saw it a little over 24 hours after it began to open. By that time, you had to be about 4 inches away from the bloom to smell the carrion-like smell.

The graduate students explaining the environment the flower is found in, as well as the amazing way in which it attracts and traps flies/carrion beetles to reproduce and the 10-foot tall tree-like leaf (!) make me truly appreciate how amazing the spectr

No time lapse video?

[Johnny Mozzarella]

No offense to the plant but it is like watching paint dry.

Misread headline

[Tokerat]

At first i wondered if the corpse plant was where they made soylent green...I need coffee...

It's a hot plant.

[Senor_Programmer]

Thermal images. [google.com]

Re:Corpse Plant?

[BiggyP]

My first thought was "Some new and macabre kind of bio diesel production facility?"

Re:Corpse Plant?

[dnoyeb]

My first though was, "I know what Phalus is and its not 'corpse' or 'plant'" And now that I look at the plant itself, I am convince that I have been lied to about the translation of its Latin name!?

Its similar to a nicname I have used on my starships and other things over the years.

Metallic Phalic, Ferrous Phalus, Iron Phalus, etc.

Re:They did this on the simpsons...

[moosesocks]

somebody recently pointed out to me that 95% of the humor on the simpsons is not original, but simply a reference to something else, be it another TV show/movie, literature, history, or some sort of real-life phenomenon --- regardless of wether or not this is where the comedic value of the gag lies.

I'm saying this all with the highest respect, of course -- the scriptwriters for the simpsons are unbelievably intelligent compared to most. there are hidden references EVERYWHERE -- that I think takes skill.

Re:They did this on the simpsons...

[Soko]

So, what happens when they reference Slashdot in a story line? What will they be modded as, Hmmmmm?

(-1, Not Futurama)

Soko

Re:They did this on the simpsons...

[Barlo_Mung_42]

I'm somebody so feel free to quote me. I would like to point out that 95% of everything creative is not original, but simply a reference to something else. It's the other 5% that makes it interesting (or not).

Re:They did this on the simpsons...

[wfberg]

As the Soutpark episode with Professor Chaos and General Disarray pointed out though, there is not much the Simpsons haven't touched.

"Simpsons dit it!" [tvtome.com]

Re:They did this on the simpsons...

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

The Simpsons did have original humor, it's just that it's satire, so it naturally refers to other things.

Re:They did this on the simpsons...

[Anubis350]

It is. What makes this one particularly interesting though is it seems to be singing "feed me seamore!!"

Re:Which is worse...

[Siniset]

which is worse, you making that comment on a friday night, or me replying? :)

Re:damn!

[Roofus]

Yeah, well at least the nickname 'Cowboy Neal' doesn't sound like Hairy Vagina! I hope to God that's not your real name....

Re:Wow. Huge news.

[rpdillon]

Err, the last time it bloomed was in 2001, and the news item on ./ even said "only a few times in it's 40 year life span". How that equates to "most every every year" is beyond me, but there ya go.

Re:Wow. Huge news.

[MushMouth]

One bloomed in san francisco [sfgate.com] a few weeks ago. There are a lot of these plants at this point and there seems to be one blooming all over.

Re:Wow. Huge news.

[jafiwam]

This particular flower bloomed last year too.

The guys they have running the gardens at the UW are some of the best in the world. That place is amazing.

Anyway, it was all over the news then too. Blah. Local news sucks.

Re:Wow. Huge news.

[rpdillon]

OK, well, sounds like you know better than I. TFA said last time was in 2001, hence my comment. =/ As you say, local news sucks. =)

Re:Lordy... streaming video... help!

[BiggyP]

have you tried just opening that XML file with VLC? or pointing mplayer at the url you get from inside the XML(asx) file?