August 14, 2006--Only the Amorphophallus Titanium Knows Brooklyn
Though from its Latin name, Amorphophallus Titanium, one sort of gets the picture of how this swollen flower looks (you can get a full view from the linked NY Times article). You've probably seen enough of the kinds of bulging forms that gave the flower its scientific name so that you do not need to head for the D Train and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. On the other hand, if you want to get a whiff of this otherwise unnoteworthy flower, you had better get a move on because it's aroma will last for just a short time--sort of like a flower on Cialis.
But I warn you, the plant's common name is the Corpse Flower, because of its stench, which rivals that which arises off the even more famous Gowanus Canal of Brooklyn.
You may, though, have to wait in line. So many thousands of the curious have been drawn there that it may take some time before you get within sight of it, though, they say, you will know you are in the right place because of the smell of, well, rotting flesh.
Brooklyn has also been home to many poets. Walt Whitman, for example, lived and worked on Leaves of Grass in Brooklyn Heights. So some of the Amorphophallus visiters also have a way with words. One of the gardeners was quoted as saying, “It smelled like a lot of things rotting at the same time.” The Vice President of Horticulture and Facilities, attempting to do a little better, said, “The smell pulsated in waves,” not bad; but then sort of spoiled things when he added, “It was like a fishing dock at low tide.”
And then, after visiting the Botanical Garden, for a full tour of Brooklyn, walk around the corner to the nearby site of Ebbets Field, where the Dodgers played, still haunted by the ghosts of Duke and Gil and Pee Wee and Jackie. Their motto, because they always lost to the hated Yankees in the World Series was “Wait ‘til next year”; their nickname—The Brooklyn Bums. They departed for Los Angeles in 1957, preferring smog to the smell of rotting meat.
Thomas Wolfe had it right about only the dead knowing Brooklyn; but then he went too far because you can in fact go home again.
But bring along a respirator.
But I warn you, the plant's common name is the Corpse Flower, because of its stench, which rivals that which arises off the even more famous Gowanus Canal of Brooklyn.
You may, though, have to wait in line. So many thousands of the curious have been drawn there that it may take some time before you get within sight of it, though, they say, you will know you are in the right place because of the smell of, well, rotting flesh.
Brooklyn has also been home to many poets. Walt Whitman, for example, lived and worked on Leaves of Grass in Brooklyn Heights. So some of the Amorphophallus visiters also have a way with words. One of the gardeners was quoted as saying, “It smelled like a lot of things rotting at the same time.” The Vice President of Horticulture and Facilities, attempting to do a little better, said, “The smell pulsated in waves,” not bad; but then sort of spoiled things when he added, “It was like a fishing dock at low tide.”
And then, after visiting the Botanical Garden, for a full tour of Brooklyn, walk around the corner to the nearby site of Ebbets Field, where the Dodgers played, still haunted by the ghosts of Duke and Gil and Pee Wee and Jackie. Their motto, because they always lost to the hated Yankees in the World Series was “Wait ‘til next year”; their nickname—The Brooklyn Bums. They departed for Los Angeles in 1957, preferring smog to the smell of rotting meat.
Thomas Wolfe had it right about only the dead knowing Brooklyn; but then he went too far because you can in fact go home again.
But bring along a respirator.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
7:34 PM
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