'It smells like rotting meat'
Exotic devil's tongue hits full bloom, stinking up Lincoln Park Conservatory
Every year around this time, something stinks at the Lincoln Park Conservatory.
It's not a plumbing problem, though visitors could be forgiven for thinking it might be.
"Basically, it smells like rotting meat," said conservatory horticulturist Steve Meyer.
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
What reeks is the exotic Amorphophallus rivieri -- aka devil's tongue. The shoulder-high plant with a maroon spike in its center, native to Southeast Asia, produces an odor to attract flies and beetles to help in pollination.
The smell varies from day to day. Last Friday, the stink wafted about 25 paces away and overwhelmed the scents of other plants there. Wednesday, on a partly cloudy day, a faint whiff of nastiness hovered around the plant. Sunny days pump up the pungency.
The bugs are looking for a spot to lay eggs where there will be a food supply -- "something dead," said Meyer -- for their offspring to eat. As the bugs lay eggs, they "walk against the pollen and move it around. They'll go to another plant and do the same thing."
Visitors to the conservancy "will say, 'Ewww. This smells bad.' And it's kind of like when you taste something bad, you turn to someone else and say, 'Here taste this,' " said Meyer.
Houck is predicting another ill wind blowing through the Chicago Park District-operated conservatory in a week or so: A second devil's tongue is expected to bloom and shoot out a snootful of stench.