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People love blooming stench

Alice the Amorphophallus is about to flower, a rare event that smells like rotting flesh. It's a smash.

By TAMARA LUSH
Published May 13, 2005

	[AP photo]
	All of "Alice's" gag-inducing glory is about to unfurl.

CORAL GABLES - It's oddly satisfying to be a horticulturist in Florida. Take the daily routine of Jennifer Drozd at the Fairchild Tropical Garden as an example.

Each day, Drozd inhales the delicate scent of orchids. Plucks wilted leaves off a purple-flowered gloxinia. Patiently answers the many questions of the garden's curious visitors.

"Hi!" says a man in a straw hat, Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. "Where's the stinky plant?"

Drozd motions to what looks like a Belgian endive on steroids. The plant - Amorphophallus titanum, a.k.a. "Alice the Amorphophallus" - is on the verge of blooming, which is a rare occasion, one that hundreds of people each day are clamoring to see.

And smell.

"People like to smell things that smell bad," said Drozd, shrugging. "And this, it smells like rotting fish and you can smell it from 150 feet away."

Yum!

But she's right. People like things that gross them out. In fact, several people who saw the plant this week were disappointed that it didn't yet smell.

"I'd like to be here to smell it," admitted Roy Weiland, 81, of Fort Wayne, Ind.

Alice sits in the middle of a screened-in room filled with blooming orchids and spiny bromeliads. Earlier this week, the area smelled like the plant section of Home Depot.

But by the time you read this, Alice could be in full bloom, which will change the whole odor dynamic. It's supposed to unfurl its leaves sometime between today and Sunday and let out a stench worse than any Dumpster. (In its native Indonesia, the plant is called the "corpse flower.")

In its natural setting, the odor attracts pollinators: sweat bees and carrion beetles.

The majestic red bloom will last only a day or two, then close and lay dormant for several months until it sprouts a single leaf, which looks more like a tree. If all goes well, the leaf-tree will then morph back into a tuber.

It could be several years until Alice completes the process and blooms again. The garden's three Amorphophallus plants have only bloomed seven times in the past 15 or so years; a similar plant bloomed at the Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota in 1999.

Florida is the only place in the United States where these plants, which often reach 8 feet tall, can grow outside.

Alice bloomed once in 1999, but never opened into a flower and never released the overpowering stench. Then in 2001, it bloomed in all of its full, malodorous glory.

Drozd repotted Alice on March 30, when it was an 80-pound tuber. In less than a month and a half, Alice grew to its current height of more than 6 feet; sometimes it sprouted 3 inches or more in a day.

Every day for the last month, Drozd lovingly measured Alice and took its photo.

"I don't touch it," she said.

And really, she can't. Drozd is allergic to Alice's sap, allergic to all Aroid plants - plants such as philodendrons, calla lilies and Alice.

"If I touch it, I get, like, a big hive," she said.

Drozd is 27 and from Chicago. Like most non-native Floridians, she was mesmerized by the state's showy, tropical plants that thrive in year-round, humid weather. The plants in Florida, said Drozd, are exciting and otherworldly, like something one would see in a science fiction movie.

"I wouldn't say that tropicals are better than temperates, though," she said. "I am used to Midwest gardens. Perennials. Ferns. Maples."

In the tone of her voice, "Maple" was synonymous with "boring."

Sure, the tall trees produce some vibrant foliage. But how can that compare to Alice, a plant that was first discovered in 1878 in the rain forests of Sumatra, one that saves all its energy for one bloom and smells like a rotten corpse?

Drozd expects to work around the clock this weekend. She wants to be there when Alice unfurls, and on Thursday, was nervously expecting the moment. She may get a mask to combat the smell, or she may take a break and walk to her favorite part of the gardens - the Victoria water lily pond.

"They have white and pink flowers that bloom at night," said Drozd. "They smell like pineapple."

For more information on Alice the Amorphophallus, visit the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden online at www.fairchildgarden.org The garden has a live Web cam to check on Alice's progress. Unfortunately, you won't be able to smell anything.

Tamara Lush can be reached at 727 893-8612 or at lush@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 13, 2005, 01:25:05]