Jun 21, 2010

A couple of followups

Recently our fearless leader posted about the remarkable Titan Arum, also known as the Corpse Flower and remarked that although it is stinky (hence the nickname), it isn't particularly ugly in appearance.

After stumbling across this photo of the same flower about to bloom at the Huntington Gardens in California, I think we may need to reconsider:


The Huntington Gardens takes ugly seriously: this flower has its own blog: Stinky Huntington.

Also, in case you think the baby birds in my previous post are not fair representatives of baby birds the world over, check out these baby blackbirds at a wildlife hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel (from Reuters via The Telegraph):



Respectfully submitted by Wombat (No Relation)

6 comments:

Arachnophile said...

Well, there IS such thing as ugly smells. The Corpse flower is one UGLY smelling flower. ;) I lucked out and got to smell the one in Vancouver when it bloomed.

Anonymous said...

Smelly, stinky, malodorous...yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. The real question is: "How does it taste?" If blue-cheese is anything to go by, the closer something smells to feet and arse, the more delicious it is (would be a great English pub name, BTW - The Foot and Arse). Methinks this flower could be the greatest tasting thing on Earth! OK, who's gonna volunteer?

Anonymous said...

I agree on the ugly factor of baby birds- if we limit it to baby altricial birds. Now baby precocial birds tend to be on the 'cute'n fuzzy' side - ducklings, cygnets, baby ostriches... Heck, turkey chicks are cute ! (They don't go bald until later...)

April Lorier said...

These are adorable! Are these the famous "Three Tenors"?

wombat said...

Anon is correct of course that there are some species of birds that are born cute and fuzzy. Good thing too, or imagine how Marshmallow Peeps would look.

LuckyTiger said...

I saw a giant corpse flower in a vivero (nursery) between Taxco and Cuernavaca and lemme just say I never thought a plant could so thoroughly creep me out. They look like the offspring of Rapaccini's daughter and a triffid, with splotchy blooms the color of that bloated corpse/ghost/lady in the 80's movie named House.

Ah... and the smell.