This is Vancouver’s very own Corpse Flower, aka Titan Arum.

As you’ll hear in my video, it’s one of the hottest tickets in town this week.

It’s not only the largest flower on this planet; when it first blooms…

… it’s also the smelliest.

When the petals unfurl, the deep red segments of this self-heating plant draw pollinators such as carrion beetles and flesh flies that feed on dead animals – or, at least that’s what they do in the plant’s native Sumatra!

Fortunately, there were no signs of them today at the Bloedel Conservatory!

Nor was there any discernible smell this afternoon, on day two of its anticipated 48 or so hours of bloom time. The smell is apparently at its most pungent in the early and late hours of the day.

At six years, this plant is an early bloomer. This is the first time a corpse flower has bloomed in Canada, and it’s expected to be some years before this massive plant blossoms again.