Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Stinking flowers bloom simultaneously, mysteriously

Amorphophallus titanum is a fascinating and Gothic-friendly plant, both because of its appearance (a giant, meaty phallus) and especially its odor (that of dead bodies, hence its nickname: the corpse flower).

This much is old news.  What's new is that a bunch of corpse flowers have blossomed across America, all around the same time. Which is very strange:

So far, seven corpse flowers have bloomed around the US within months of each other, which – given that it takes so long for a corpse flower to develop – is an anomaly that botanists would love to get to the bottom of...

This is super weird, because there have only been 157 recorded blooms ever between 1889 and 2008. But this year in the US alone, at least seven flowers have bloomed.

Sounds like the basic for a horror or alien invasion story.

One bonus Gothic detail:

Botanists have suggested that this noxious smell helps to attract flies and other insects that typically eat decaying material, so they can pollenate the flower. So you can think of the corpse flower as a kind of 'anti-flower', because instead of attracting pollinators with its sweet smelling nectar, it attracts them with carrion-like smells.

Rise of the anti-flower!

(thanks to Clyde for the link; Paul Morris took the photo)

Surprise sinkhole in Queensland

The Earth launched another attack against her foe, the human race. This time the battlefield was Queensland, and once again the weapon was a sinkhole.

Lynnette McKay, whose Basin Pocket property is marred by a sinkhole that grew to 15 metres in diameter on Tuesday night after first appearing on Monday, said she and husband Ray had “no idea whatsoever” their back yard sat above a disused mine shaft.

There's more to come:

It is the latest in a series of sinkholes and collapsed surfaces to dog parts of Ipswich that were once underground mines, now residential suburbs.

Underground mines in what is now the suburb of Collingwood Park – approved by the Nicklin Country National party government in 1967 over the objections of the area’s majority owner, the Queensland Housing Commission – were abandoned after buildings were destroyed by venting air from shafts in the 1974 floods.

A Gothic angle appears here, with the revenge/return of the past, erupting into the present.

(thanks to Ed Webb chez Twitter)