What did you do for mother's day? Why, I took my mom to see the Giant Misshapen Penis Flower That Smelled Like Death! And you?

Sorry for the excessive title, but I'm really smitten with it.

Yes, it's true. For Mother's Day 2007 my sister, mother, and I got up at six a.m. loaded into a car and drove to St. Peter, MN, home of Gustavus Adolphus college and the freshly blooming Amorphophallus titanum - those of you who stayed awake during Latin class are disappointed that I gave away the joke.

The Corpse Flower is renown for a few things...

1. Being Awesomely Huge - it's gotta be nearly 6 feet big.
2. Being Awesomely Short-Lived - It blooms for 48 hours once every 10-20 years (or close to it).
3. Bring Awesomely Putrid - It ain't called the 'Corpse Flower' for nothing.

Ever since I was a kid and I first heard about it, I knew that I had to see it. "Huge Flower"? Sure, that's nice. "...That blooms once every other decade for 48 hours"? Uh-huh, getting warmer. "...That smells like a rotten corpse?" Hell yes! When do we leave?!

I had heard about it blooming purely by accident while reading about a different one blooming. Like I said, I was always interested in these things and always picked up on those news stories where it was mentioned. Anyways, the instant that I had heard that one near me was getting ready, I was pumped. This is one of those rare things that I have always wanted to see and had pretty much resigned myself to never being able to see. Fortune smiled on me, however, and when she opened on Saturday night, the day before we had planned to go, I was giddy.

It's a multi-media world people. There's a movie of the experience below. While it won't win any award for camera work, I think you'll get the idea.

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