Splendid and Stinky ‘Corpse’ Flower

City-Kid Review:

It’s big and it smells stinky.
I like it.

I received an email from the NY Botanical Gardens this morning that their ‘corpse’ flower – actually called the Amorphophallus Titanum – was finally blooming. We scratched our playdate plans, hopped on a train and got in line to witness this incredible phenomenon, 80 years in the making. Could it really be as interesting as all that? Why wait 80 years for a single flower to bloom.
Well…
It is absolutely breathtaking in its beauty.
And HUGE.

The smell is distinctive: a peppery-like scent. If it were stronger, the connection to a corpse smell is understandable. It was more curiously strong than unpleasant.
This particular plant has taken ten years to blossom and it has been 80 years since the New York Botanical Garden has had such a bloom in its conservatory.

A momentous day. Following a different momentous day – the first female presidential nominee in the USA.
A staff member said it will be in full bloom tonight, and it will last about 24-36 hours.
I recommend going early. We got the 11.00am train to Botanical Gardens, and the line was just to the end of the wide pathway and folks leaving commented on the length of our line. By the time we left, the line snaked an additional 4-5 turns, and the line beyond that was all the way to the cafe. We waited for about 15/20 minutes but later the wait would have been at least an hour.
In the sun.
You can watch it on the flower cam here.
Highly recommend!

Need to Knows:

Location: 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY 10458. You can get the Metro-north train to Botanical Gardens from Grand Central or Harlem 125th street, at Park Avenue. The journey takes about ten minutes. It costs $6.50 off peak, one way.

Entry to the NYBG is free with your NYC-ID card if you have not held a membership since 2013.  Part of the membership fee can go towards taxes as a charitable donation. Membership has a reciprocal relationship with other gardens such as Wave Hill and Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Ticket prices vary according to the day. If you purchase a ticket and decide to join, cost of the ticket is taken off membership. It is one of the best investments we have ever made as we go to this garden a lot.

Food Situation: The main cafe sells pizza, sandwiches, soups and salads. A little over-priced but good quality. The gingerbread cafe is set up behind the main glass house and has a variety of over-priced junk food options. I did not see any evidence of their delicious taco truck when we were there, but that doesn’t mean they won’t bring it out on busy days.

Here is the link for more specifics.

Top-Tip

1.If you travel up on Metro North on the weekend, make sure you get City Ticket which costs only $4.00. Also, you can get family fares of $1 per child for up to 4 children, aged 5-11

2.If you have time, make a visit to the Everett Family Garden, where there are tons of train-related activities especially designed for kids.  On the weekends, they have a talented musician playing train songs, while other kids make and color a train ‘puppet’. They brought out instruments while we were there and City-Kid loved bashing cymbals to ‘train, train, coming round the track’. Every so often, depending on the number of children, they create a train parade up to the ‘main depot’ and back, with the musician belting out train-related songs. It is tremendous fun.

Have you seen a corpse flower, either here or at another garden? Please share your story (and picture?) with us below.

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