Uncle Fester may be known by many as the Jackie Coogan and Christopher Lloyd character in the Addams Family series, however for many Vancouverites a new Uncle Fester is about to steal the spotlight.
Bloedel Conservatory’s Uncle Fester, a rare titan arum plant, is set to bloom in the near future.
The titan arum plant, better known as the corpse flower, is a rare species of plant native to the Sumatra region in Indonesia. The plant gets its name from the foul smell emitted during blooming, being commonly compared to rotten meat or flesh.
Corpse flowers are unpredictable in their blooming patterns, with some taking over a decade to spread their stench. Vancouver saw witness to the city’s first bloom in 2018, when Uncle Fester originally opened up to the public.
“Bets are on as to when exactly the flower will open, but based on its already-larger corm, we think this year’s bloom is going to be bigger and stinkier than ever before,” Bloedel Conservatory superintendent Bruce McDonald said on Wednesday.
Vancouver became one of the few North American cities to have a corpse flower in 2016 when the Park Board purchased Fester from a North Carolina nursery.
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clayton.whitelaw@bpdigital.ca
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