Update: After a long wait, the Chicago Botanic Garden determined that the corpse flower affectionately known as Spike “lacks the energy” to bloom on its own. As a result, scientists will manually cut into the flower at 10 a.m. on Sunday, August 30.
As the long-awaited blooming of its corpse flower approaches, the Chicago Botanic Garden has set up a Webcam so fans of Amorphophallus titanum can watch from home.
Denver’s corpse flower bloomed late Tuesday, and Spike, as Glencoe’s specimen is called, is now expected to bloom Sunday or Monday. When that happens, the garden will extend visiting hours until 2 a.m. so that guests can appreciate the sight and smell—“a combination of limburger cheese, garlic, rotting fish, and smelly feet”—in their full glory.