It was an exciting week at Colorado State University's Plant Growth Facility when the resident corpse flower bloomed for the first time in eight years!
Here's what the plant, nicknamed Cosmo, looked like on Friday, pre-bloom:
The much-awaited event happened on Sunday. I was out of town but am lucky to have a friend who was willing to wait in line for 90 minutes to see this:
When I returned on Monday, Cosmo's spectacular bloom had wilted:
I was also not able to smell the rotting-flesh scent the flower uses to attract pollinators, which my friend described as "nauseating but subtle."
Nature. So cool.
One of the volunteers told me that some of the pollen will be saved in the CSU Seed Lab, which has the largest collection of its kind in the world.
More than 8,600 visitors came to experience this incredible phenomenon. In Colorado's climate, this rare tropical plant can only survive in a suitable greenhouse environment. And it helps to be cared for by a group of very dedicated humans.
Learn more about Cosmo here.
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