Today, I met my first corpse flower. Nicknamed "Morphy," this flower stands at 7 feet tall and is known and named for its terrible odor. This flower is a rare species with only several in the world to be found. The reason why the corpse flower at Dartmouth's greenhouse has received so much attention in the past couple days, is because it is in bloom! A corpse flower bloom is a momentous occasion that happens on average once every six years or even longer, depending on the plant. While the plant is tall now, the appendage sticking out of its center will soon collapse as the plant bloom period passes.
As the blooming period for the corpse flower is typically two or three days, the plant has received already hundreds of visitors with lines of people extending to the front of Dartmouth's Life Sciences Center.
I had the lucky opportunity to visit Morphy today in the greenhouse with fellow classmates. Seeing the plant in person and smelling it, I can say that the plant lives up to its name.
