But I'm not sure how a friend would take it if I offered her one of these flowers out of my garden. This is Dranunculus Vulgaris, also known as a Voodoo Lily (incorrectly, I think) and Dragon Arum - and, yes, it is as huge as it looks. The bloom is several feet long.
Oh, but they're so uh lovely! Yes, and like other plants, they need to be pollinated. But unlike most other plants, these are pollinated by flies not bees. And in order to attract flies, it helps if you smell bad. In fact, if you can manage to smell like week-old roadkill, then you can greatly increase your chances of successful pollination. And that is exactly what these flowers smell like. It is not a faint smell either, it is an evil cloud that wafts and drifts.
This plant has another odd quality, which is that the smell only lasts for one day. After that you can cut them and put them in a vase in your house with no trace of odor. Often I cut them down before that, so that the mailman doesn't contact the police about rotting corpses. This year we endured the smell so that my neighbor could cut them down and give them to a friend - as a symbol of friendship I suppose.
Oh, if you're still here, this is the back of the lovely pansy card.
Ha! :) You gave me an idea for a cool maxicard...:)
ReplyDeleteChristine that plant looks so prehistoric! So bizarre that it grows that way. Have a great week!
ReplyDeletealien or a triffid in disguise! I'm glad I wasn't about to eat when I read this ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat Uncle Fowler had several of this type of card in his collection - the same glitter encrusted writing, the same se timental message. Interesting to note that the fashion for such cards transcended the Atlantic
ReplyDeleteOh--I love things like this. Very, very interesting and the flower is amazing. I wonder if they have these exotic flowers at the Hall of Flowers here in SF....they have very unusual things there...you have inspired me to go look....
ReplyDeleteI 2nd the Triffid comment. I wouldn't turn my back on that plant for a minute!
ReplyDeleteThat flower is breathtaking in probably all the wrong ways.
ReplyDelete"Feed me Seemore!" That plant is really bizarre. So glad you only had to deal with its "essence" for one day (and the flies). Thanks for sharing those nice postcards too!
ReplyDeleteWe had a plumber working at the house on the 'odiferous' day, I considered telling him it was the remains of the last plumber that came to our house and didn't do a good job, but didn't want to scare him off since we needed the work done that day... I ended up closing all the windows since it made for a hazardous work environment and he might call OSHA to report us.
ReplyDeleteMy friend told me about this plant and said the flower looked like marbled meat, which it kind of does. It's a pretty clever evolution of a plant, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteThat's a scary-looking flower. Feed me, Seymour!
ReplyDeleteThe plant eclipses the card, for sure! Scary and interesting.
ReplyDelete