"It was covered in flies when I walked in this morning, when I walked in," Nave said.
Flies benefit the plant by helping it pollinate. However, he says it is a “waste of time” for the insects involved, who are fooled by the smell to the point of laying eggs on the plant in the hope that their maggots will eat the rotting flesh. Unfortunately for them, there are none.
The story continues below
This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
The plant only blooms once a year at the Calgary Zoo.
In the wild, the voodoo lily will only bloom once every several years, as the rainforests where they typically grow have so little sunlight.
At the Calgary Zoo, it receives enough sunlight korea email list to flower annually at roughly the same time each year, although zookeepers never know for sure.
“It’s unpredictable, it’s on its own time scale. I have no idea how much energy is in that [plant], but it knows when it’s got enough, and this amazing flower pops out. It’ll be like that for probably two more days, and it has a very short window when it stinks catastrophically and then it wilts catastrophically and collapses.”
Some species of the plant smell so bad that it is unbearable from a distance.
To get the full extent of the voodoo lily's scent, visitors could stick their noses right up to the plant. However, that would not be the case with all voodoo lily species.
“There are some species of this that I wouldn’t be here doing this interview right now,” Nave said, as he stood next to the plant, describing how the odor would be strong enough to be smelled clearly outside the closed doors of the conservatory, and would be unbearable up close.
