The strange “corpse flower” that gathered hundreds of people at a gas station in Northern California

The name of the plant comes from the intense stench that it gives off when it is flowering, reminiscent of a dead body or a rotten meat. And that’s why so many people want to see it up close

Photo: BENOIT DOPPAGNE / Belgian / AFP / Getty Images

A strange plant nicknamed “corpse flower” caused a stir among residents of a city in the area of the bay of San Francisco , who on Monday flocked to see her at an abandoned gas station in the town.

There she led Solomon Leyva, owner of a nursery of Alameda working with rare plants and that he had been posting on social media about his Amorphophallus titanum . The great interest that his followers showed for her led him to call an event so they could see her. And so did hundreds of people who were lined up in a row that spanned the block most of the day, he said San Francisco Chronicle .

Just that normal thing that happens in Alameda where a guy brings a corpse flower to an old empty gas station and half the city lines up to take a photo with it. pic.twitter.com/7EeaXy8t4K

– Peter Hartlaub (@peterhartlaub) May 18, 2021

“I grabbed my truck, went down to my greenhouse, put it in with the help of a friend of mine, I dragged up to this abandoned building and people began to appear ”, Leyva told the aforementioned newspaper.

The colloquial name of the plant (corpse flower) comes from intense stench that it gives off when it is blooming, reminiscent of a dead body or rotten meat . That is also the reason why people want to see it up close and personal.

“Everyone tells me that the last time they saw this was in San Francisco and there were a barrier. They had to wait for hours and were not allowed to approach, ”Leyva said. “I think everyone is thinking that they can come up, walk around her and smell her “, said to the aforementioned half sitting in his chair of campsite from which you answered them you ask multiple times. Man calculates that about 1, 200 people stopped by to visit the plant.

But it’s not the first time the stinky plant has drawn crowds . The opening of one of these corpse flowers in 2016 brought a wave of visitors to the New York Botanical Garden. The British Journal The Guardian says visitors described the smell as “disgusting” or “worse than a thousand vomiting ”.

The Amorphophallus titanum is extremely rare not only for its size, appearance and smell but also for its scarcity . According to the United States Botanical Garden , there is only 1, 000 remaining copies in nature , that is, not cared for in a greenhouse or garden. The same source indicates that it can grow up to 12 feet tall and takes about a decade to flower, during which time it releases its unusual scent to attract pollinators. After this, it takes a few days to die.

A video of the institution shows the workers in the pollination process of one of its plants in 2020. The botanical garden says that pollen was sent to the Chicago Botanical Garden as part of the national conservation project Amorphophallus titanum .