Regardless, check out some of the facts on this rare breed of flower:
1) It produces a smell unlike any other flower in the world, that of a rotting mammal. Yeah, dead human. Visit Lois when she blooms and you'll feel like a member of the CSI team when they discover the body of a dead hooker in a back alley off the strip. Be one with Grissom, or Morpheus, depending on your show loyalties.
2) Its true name is Amorphophallus titanum. Break that down into its Greek parts and you'll quickly figure out why a BBC broadcaster renamed it to 'titan arum' when spoken about on a documentary chronicling the blooming process. The sensors would have had a hard time covering that one up and the fines would have racked up like the jackpot on a Vegas slotmachine. Apparently Vegas is on my mind...
3) Circumference can reach 10ft. 10ft, I said!
4) Native to rainforests in Sumatria, Indonesia.
5) First U.S. flowerings: NY in 1937 and 1939
6) Carrion-eating beetles and Flesh Flies pollinate it, further enhancing its intoxicating smell.
7) The male and female flowers grow from the same stalk. Born together, bloom together (female first, male second), die together. The essence of true love.
8) After the flower blooms and dies within a short period of time (hours, days, very short) a single leaf grows in its place. It's almost as a Phoenix, rising from the ashes of its parents...incapable of aiding in Dumbledore's escape, though. This leaf can grow as high as 20ft. and 16ft. across.
9) Current record: Stuttgart, Germany with a bloom measuring 9ft.6in. high.
10) The two documented occurrences in Texas: a) 2004 at Stephen F. Austin State University (Go Jacks!) and b) today or tomorrow at the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas!
And Becca's going to see her. I'm not a lover of flowers, just a lover of rarities.
Addendum: I did not go see Lois in person. The time slipped away and before I knew it she had wilted and looked too sad and dreary to visit. I thought I best let a dying elder be.
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