Stinky Plant and Beautiful Butterflies

Have you ever heard of a Corpse Flower?
No? Really?

Me either.

Until Jojo called for one of those once in a lifetime, carpe diem, have a moment, moments.

(my reenactment of the conversation)
Jojo: "Lois is blooming. Do you want to go to Houston and see her?"
ARG: "Lois? Is blooming?"
Jojo: "Her blog says she's blooming. It only happens every 40-or-something years and she stinks."
ARG: "um. Yes? And Lois has a blog? You follow it?"
Jojo: "Yes. Miss Hathaway has it bookmarked and updates me."

I give you Lois:

A six foot tall Amorphophallus titanum aka Corpse Flower. Because she stinks. Bad.

Her blogger lied. She wasn't blooming. Well. She had started to bloom. But since it only happens like every billion years and there are only like 5 of these plants in the universe I can see how there might be some wiggle room around her blooming status.

Lois didn't stink while we were there. Which kind of made me sad. I wanted the full experience. Here is some info about the Loises of the world from Wikipedia.

Lois has paparazzi. No wonder she feels pressured. (Pardon Emerson's head. I wasn't about to let him miss out. Oh? You don't know Emerson? http://www.deweyandemerson.com/)

Because Lois shared space with the butterfly habitat I had to take pictures of them, too!! I didn't identify them... and I'm perfectly fine with that. :o)

GAR and CCT came with us to see Lois!

Lois (dubbed Slow-is by a witty Twitter follower) finally bloomed the other day. Here is a picture from the Houston Museum of Natural Science's Flickr stream:

If your Miss Hathaway doesn't already have it bookmarked, you can read more about Lois on her blog.

Now you can say you know about Lois. And that makes you pretty special!