This morning's walk with friends in Chicago's Botanical Gardens gave us a chance to see the fading corpse flower. I missed the full bloom, but found the dying flower to be just as fascinating. The flower stands 6 feet tall and is apparently quite spectacular when it blooms. It blooms every 4 to 5 years, a single flower that lasts one day. When it blooms, it apparently has quite a horrid scent (hence, the name). It takes another 2 months to fade and go dormant and then the cycle starts again. So you can imagine what a big deal it was this year when it was clear it was going to flower!
Here's a chart of what it looks like throughout the life cycle if interested: https://365project.org/taffy/the-also-ran-ph/2017-06-06
This is fantastic .. I have seen one of these plants at the Auckland Winter Gardens but never seen it in full flower... I have smelt one of its smaller cousins so can imagine the smell.. fav
I love, love, love this capture of the fading flower and how you processed it. It is beautiful. I saw it's little cousin a couple of weeks ago, also in a botanical garden. If you are interested. http://365project.org/mona65/365/2017-04-04
Great image the decay shows some interesting textures. On a few occasions I've made my wife keep flowers that are dead just so I can photograph them as they decay! Fav
I have seen this plant on TV I think they have one at Kew Gardens in London. The smell is supposed to be awful so you did well to miss that phase! Your image is wonderful! You have captured the decaying plant and made it beautiful especially the way it is reaching for the light! Superb processing Taffy as always! Fav!
@taffy Wow! Fav! That reaching for the light is so wonderful and almost dramatic. After being away for a couple of years, I a happy to follow you again, Taffy :-)
Super detail and capture, it must be a sight but not for the faint hearted, I've heard about it but never seen one. It's maybe just as well it's kept as a botanical specimen!! Fav
Awesome. I wonder why your photos haven't been showing up in my stream? Last one I saw was the falls. I figured you must be so busy you weren't posting. Very strange
@jgpittenger Hi Jane -- It's nice to know that you missed my postings! Yes, life has gotten in the way...leadership retreat, then the Hamilton 'reunion' weekend with friends, then my mom's to help her with move into independent living in a retirement/senior facility (a move that hadn't been going well), then a day to make more arrangements for our renovation project in August, and today we arrived on Beaver Island. I can already feel the tension fading away, even though it's 1:00 a.m. here and I'm still unpacking! I'm hoping to be back to normal and caught up sometime mid-week. Something had to give, and it ended up being 365/Beyond 365 Flickr, and even new Sandbox group, sadly, but not permanently.
@jgpittenger That's weird, definitely! The last one I'd posted was of the falls, so if you saw that one, you were up to date. And then I posted the frog last night. Still WAY behind, but making progress.
June 19th, 2017
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
