Smell-O-Vision

Botanists are keeping an eye on a corpse flower plant that's getting ready to bloom at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

The plant, which is technically named Amorphophallus titanum -- a name that seems to fuse associations both kinky and creepy -- blooms rarely, sometimes only once in ten years. When it does bloom, it gives off an odor like decaying flesh, which is where it gets its more common name. Although the scientists at the Gardens know the plant is approaching the stage where the flower will bloom, they don't know just when. Biological phenomena are not always as regularly timed as things like geysers.

I saw a comment on one version of this story that noted the coincidence between the expected stinky unveiling and this week's premiere of the A&E Network show Fear the Walking Dead. It's the spinoff of their hit show The Walking Dead, which is itself based on the long-running comic book The Walking Dead.

All of these shows and comics are about dead people who walk and try to eat the brains of the living. I think the new show is about how the dead try to find a way to walk that instills fear. I suspect it will be a shambling kind of walk with mouths agape and decaying flesh rotting from their bones, but since the response that idea evokes from me is trying to contain "Goodgriefanotherfrickinzombieshow?" within a single yawn, you might want to consult other sources.

I think this really all is just coincidence and there are no similarities between the coverage of the corpse flower and Fear the Walking Dead. On the other hand, the live feed of a giant plant in a pot does seem at least as interesting as another frickin' zombie show.