ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) 鈥� Residents of a San Francisco Bay Area city flocked to an abandoned gas station to get a whiff of a corpse flower 鈥� so-called because of the stench it emits when it blooms 鈥� after its owner decided to share the rare plant with his neighbors.
Solomon Leyva, a nursery owner in Alameda who deals in exceptionally rare plants, had been posting on social media about his amorphophallus titanum. When he saw a lot of interest in the giant blooming flower, he decided to wheel it Monday to the abandoned building, where a line of people stretched down the block for most of the day, .
鈥淚 grabbed my wagon, went down to my greenhouse, put it in with the help of a friend of mine, dragged it down here to this abandoned building and people just started showing up,鈥� Leyva said.
Leyva relaxed in a camping chair at the old Art Deco gas station and patiently answered the same questions again and again. He estimated that by 4 p.m., at least 1,200 residents had visited the flower.
鈥淓veryone is commenting to me that the last time they鈥檝e seen this was in San Francisco, and there was a barrier, and they had to wait for hours, and they weren鈥檛 allowed to get near it,鈥� Leyva said. 鈥淚 think everyone鈥檚 tripping out that they can walk up and wiggle it and smell it."
Himanshu and Sayali Jain brought their 3-year-old son after following the flower on social media.
鈥淚 just wanted to thank him, because I thought we鈥檇 never get to see it,鈥� Sayali Jain said.
The Associated Press
