Cool Hunting

Designers have long been plagiarizing nature's organic shapes and colors, but even the most creative don't rival the ingenious, stunning—and in this case peculiar—examples of flora and fauna. A celebrity of the plant world, the Amorphophallus Titanum, or "the corpse flower," is a rare bloom that's native to Indonesia and known for the extreme smell that it emits when it opens. Last week at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, "the Titan," as it's also sometimes known, bloomed for the first time in New York since 1939. Cultivated from seed for over 10 years, the plant grows at a rate of up to six inches daily in its final days, emits the infamous odor for approximately eight hours, and collapses in a matter of days. Cool Hunting's 46th episode takes you on site to see the flower up close, and hear the curator, vice president, botanist and security guard at Brooklyn's botanical gardens share their personal experiences and the history of one of the most bizarre natural wonders of the world.