'Corpse flower' bloom could stink up Texas wedding

[July 23, 2010]  HOUSTON (AP) -- The flower girl at Jessica Zabala's wedding is purple, 6-feet tall, uninvited and smells like dead bodies.

She is Lois, a rare "corpse flower" that's deemed the world's stinkiest bud.

Lois is unexpectedly blooming in the Houston Museum of Natural Science. And she's in the room right next to where Zabala is marrying Jonathan Smith on Saturday.

The flower is an Amorphophallus titanum, which has only ever bloomed 29 times in the United States.

Once open, the flower's dead-body smell will likely dissipate within 12 hours. But Lois was only about two-thirds of the way to full bloom by Thursday.

So museum experts are still waiting for her stench to take over.

As are Zabala and Smith, who aren't yet sure whether their wedding will stink.

[Associated Press; By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI]

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