For a Houston-area couple, the smell of love may actually be that of a rotting stench flower, which will waft its corpse-like smell at a wedding ceremony. The married couple-to-be, Jonathan Smith and Jessica Zubala may need to wear nose plugs as they join together in matrimony. All others in attendance should do the same.

The young bride-to-be from Katy, fears that her wedding, scheduled for Saturday evening in Houston’s Cockrell Center, may smell more like a funeral. And if the stink does cling to the bodies, the people will not enjoy dancing closely together at the reception.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, “that’s because Zebala in her white gown will be competing for attention with another female – Lois, a rare corpse flower, who’s been slowly revealing her burgundy attire to thousands of spectators daily. Unfortunately, the 5-foot bloom also emits a cadaver scent designed to attract carcass-eating beetles in its rain forest home in Sumatra.”

Neither the museum event planners nor Zebala realized the corpse flower (amorphaphallus titanium) decided to make its debut on her wedding day. One of the world’s biggest flowers, this endangered species has bloomed just once before in Texas and 29 times in the United States.

According to the Chronicle, “it started as a walnut-sized seed that a Houston Museum of Natural Science horticulturalist planted as a pot and has watched grow in the museum’s greenhouse for the past six years. Over the July Fourth weekend, the horticulturalist noted the plant appeared plumper if ready to bloom.”

Hence on July 6, it was displayed on display, but for two weeks, didn’t begin to start unfolding for two weeks. The spathe or petal that opens like a calla lily, had opened just 8 inches from its core by Thursday, even though the bloom will be 4-feet-wide when fully extended.

To read the entire article from the Houston Chronicle, link here:

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