Are You in the Moody?

I hadn't been to Moody Gardens in years, so when we decided to take a trip to Galveston back in May, I decided to pay a visit. Lucky for me, the giant corpse flower, Morticia, was blooming.

Morticia's botanical name is Amorphophallus titanum, so she's not to be confused with the carrion flower, Stapelia gigantea, which I wrote about in the blog, I Smell Dead Things. 

Don't get me wrong though, Morticia is not called a giant corpse flower for nothing. She is one stinky plant. Lucky, for me she was almost finished blooming when I saw her, so her smell had faded.

The Amorphophallus titanum has one of the largest and rarest blooms. It can take 7-10 years for the plant to flower. Subsequent blooms are irregular. They may take 7-10 more years or 2-3. You never know. I guess that's one of the things that make it so special.

Even if Morticia is not in bloom, walking through the Moody Gardens rain forest pyramid is lots of fun. There are plenty of other cool plants to see like this pitcher plant.

Monkeys and birds are free to roam the pyramid, so close encounters are not unusual. The critters that inhabit the pyramid are used to people, so they mostly just go about their business.

The pyramid also hosts some busy butterflies like this zebra longwing. If you've got the time, I would highly recommend a visit to the Moody Garden the next time you're in Galveston.