Hasta La Ideas

Following up on last week’s most exciting museum story, the blooming of “Lois” the Corpse Flower at the Houston Museum of Natural Science finally took place over the weekend, releasing its terrible stench upon the excited visitors and staff who had been waiting for the moment for the past three weeks. But as quickly as it bloomed, it has already begun its slow, exhausted decline. While the museum’s big burst of enthusiasm (and likely a nice burst of extra revenue) is now over, the Houston Chronicle reports that they plan to leave Lois on display for a while before she’s put in more stable, quiet keeping:

She’ll eventually be unearthed, weighed and dusted with powdered sulfur to prevent damage. When Lois dries off, she’ll be repotted in fresh soil and kept dry until next spring, at which time experts hope she will produce a leaf.

It could take years for Lois to recuperate enough mass to bloom again, experts said, adding that they hope the next time her tuber is bigger and that she’ll be able to produce fruit.

The paper also hints that another rush of publicity with news that “The museum has another corpse flower in the greenhouse that could flower sometime in the future.”

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