Calgary Zoo's 'voodoo lily' stinks like rotting fish
Flower's name translates directly as 'unformed penis'
It's called the Amorphophallus, but a konjac by any other name would smell as bad.
The unusual flower also goes by devil's tongue, stink horn, carrion flower and voodoo lily.
"The perfume it releases is exactly the same as a decomposing corpse," said Boyd Nave, interior gardener at the Calgary Zoo.
The putrid smell attracts the plant's natural pollinators, which include beetles and carrion flies.
"It turns our stomach. It's unpleasant for us, but we have to remember there's animals that like rotten meat," said Nave.
Besides its unique fragrance, the plant also has an unusual flowering season.
"It's not like a petunia or a geranium. These things do things on their own schedule," Nave said.
The plant flowers irregularly — sometimes once a year, sometimes once every three.
That's part of what makes its current bloom worth seeing.
Edible tubers
The plant is also commonly used in the food industry.
Its tubers, which can grow to weigh more than 20 kilograms, have grown in popularity as a diet food.
Their starch is indigestible for humans, but gives the feeling of fullness, Nave said.
"In the diet food industry, if you wanna eat something that will do you no good whatsoever and fill you up, this is it."
With files from Geordin Zee