Rare notoriously stinky flower begins blooming in California
Footage shows the corpse flower, also known as the Titan Arum, in bloom at the Gardens Golden Gate Park on Tuesday (8 July).
The flower omits the pungent odor that is comparable to rotten flesh when it is in full bloom, which only lasts for two days and only happens once every three to five years.
The endangered corpse flowers are native to Sumatra, Indonesia and can grow up to 10ft tall.
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BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Owner amazed by agave plant in Telford after 50 years with family
An agave plant, tended by its owner for 50 years from pot to garden, is about to bloom for the first time, with its stalk now more than 20ft (six metres) high and towering over the home where it resident Hilary Chappin bought the plant when her daughter, now 52, was a toddler and they were living in picked out a spiky species in a small pot for a conservatory area and has kept it ever since, taking it to her next three Shropshire homes and eventually placing it outside when it got too April, she saw the plant was changing and expected "a little spike", but it is now reaching for the sky, displaying "incredible branches" with yellow buds nearly ready to open. She said: "I'm 82 now and I never thought that it would grow in my lifetime and I certainly never thought it would flower, because they usually are in glass houses."Agaves only bloom once in their lives, she said, adding she was "thrilled". The plant lived in a pot with her in Broseley and Ironbridge, but had grown so large when the family moved to Telford 23 years ago, she decided to plant it outside."I thought afterwards [it] was quite a silly thing to do because you never see them out of doors," she covered it with a garden fleece in the winter and sometimes she and her husband had to rush out and protect it, if the weather forecast predicted said it even survived the winter of 2010 which she remembered as being "very, very cold".That year, she even stuffed straw in it, she said, adding: "It's quite a dangerous thing to do because they're very spiky."Ms Chappin said she didn't know whether it was climate change or this year's warm weather that had prompted the buds, but she saw the first shoot in the spring. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Times
a day ago
- Times
LA has bounced back since the fires. Here's what visitors can expect
The lunch rush is beginning at Gladstones and the famous Malibu restaurant's deck is filling up. Diners clink their margaritas and chat over the low swish of the Pacific Ocean lapping the rocks below. Santa Monica Pier is hazily visible in the distance as the sun begins burning off the cloud cover hanging stubbornly over the coast. In such idyllic scenes it's easy to forget that seven months ago Malibu and the nearby Pacific Palisades were almost wiped off the map by one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. The firestorm that began on January 7 incinerated more than 23,000 acres, consumed nearly 6,800 structures and claimed 12 lives. There was further devastation on the other side of Los Angeles, where the Eaton fire killed 19 people and erased entire neighbourhoods in Altadena. Considering the scale of the catastrophe, it is remarkable how far LA has bounced back. Yet bounce back it has. Even in parts of the city where rebuilding will take years, green shoots of recovery are poking through the ashes. The areas most affected by the fires — Malibu, the Pacific Palisades and Altadena — are all open for business. Long before the fire, Gladstones was a beloved pit stop for Angelenos and coastal travellers. Perched on the Pacific Coast Highway, the seafood restaurant's deck hangs over the ocean giving unrivalled views of the water. There are few better spots from which to watch the sunset. The restaurant sustained serious damage in the disaster, with parts of the building burnt and extensive smoke damage to the walls. In early July, after months of work, Jim Harris, Gladstones' general manager, reopened the outdoor deck with a special night for first responders and those affected by the fires. I was in Malibu while it was still burning, reporting for The Times. Returning for the first time in late July was startling. On Gladstones' deck, sun shining, American flag fluttering, it was a perfect southern California day. The ceviche (£17) was light and fresh. Its famous clam chowder (£11) was thick, creamy and packed with clams. As tempted as I was to wash the meal down with a mai tai, I was driving. The house lemonade (£3) was a satisfying substitution (mains from £15; • Read our full guide to Los Angeles While Malibu remains deeply scarred by the fires — a full recovery will take many years — Gladstones is worth the short drive up the PCH from LA. And as well as having a beautiful afternoon, you would be helping the community recover. 'We lost a lot of restaurants,' Harris told me. 'The ones that are still standing could use the support. We're here with open arms — please come if you can.' If Gladstones offers escapism, a drive through the surrounding neighbourhood brings you back down to earth. The cars parked next to me belonged to the US Army Corps of Engineers, who are still working to remove debris. The hills once dotted with multimillion-dollar homes are filled with empty lots. It is a similar story in the nearby Pacific Palisades, a celebrity enclave beloved by Hollywood stars. Billy Crystal, Anthony Hopkins and John Goodman were among the hundreds of residents who lost their homes. • 15 of the best hotels in Los Angeles for 2025 The stretch of Sunset Boulevard leading to the Palisades is lined by vacant lots. The occasional chimney stack still stands as a reminder of what was lost. The Palisades Village, the neighbourhood's de facto downtown, was a charming, upscale collection of shops and restaurants. Now it resembles a building site. Quiet village life has been replaced by the beeps of reversing diggers and the banging of pile drivers. Debris is still being removed from the ruined buildings. The Palisades Garden Café opened in 2004. Surrounded by scorched schools and a library, it somehow survived the flames. Since reopening in March it has become something of a community hub, and was packed during my visit with construction workers and locals on their lunch break. The Korean spicy sandwich (£9) was as good as any I've had in LA's Koreatown. While seated at my laptop with an iced coffee (£3) I overheard two women discussing their problems finding home insurance. A common issue given the fire risk (mains from £6; Ten minutes from the café is one of California's biggest attractions. The Getty Villa, a marvel of fire-proof engineering, claims to be the safest place for art during a blaze. It survived the flames because of its fire-resistant steel and concrete. We should all be thankful that it did. The museum, established by the oil baron John Paul Getty in 1954 and home to ancient art from Greece and Rome, reopened at the end of June. Today's headline exhibition is The Kingdom of Pylos, which features more than 230 works of Messenian art and artifacts. Entry is free, though you have to reserve a time slot ( Its gardens alone are worth a visit — I can't think of a more tranquil spot in Los Angeles. Timothy Potts, the museum's director, told me that 'people are coming back in droves. It's really good to see the place alive.' • 10 of the best US tours While the Getty Villa survived, many of LA's treasures elsewhere could not be saved. Some of its most famous architect-designed homes were reduced to ashes. The Andrew McNally House, a Queen Anne-style mansion designed by Frederick L Roehrig for the publishing magnate and built in 1887 in an area of Altadena that came to be called Millionaire's Row, was razed in the Eaton fire. Visitors to LA who had driven down Sunset Boulevard to the coast will surely remember passing beneath the brutalist Bridges House, perched high above the traffic. That too was gutted by flames. Nearby Keeler House, designed by the modernist architect Ray Kappe, was also destroyed. Yet for all that was lost, Los Angeles still has a huge amount to offer. The city stretches far east of downtown's skyscrapers, and its palm tree-lined boulevards are only halted westwards by the ocean at Santa Monica. The fire-related restrictions from Las Flores State Beach to Santa Monica State Beach have been lifted, though you should check for the latest water quality updates. On a late summer evening I stood on the Griffith Observatory, which sits in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the sprawling city below. From up here the scale of Los Angeles is breathtaking. As I gazed at the metropolis bathed in gold from the setting sun, a cool breeze drifted in from the Pacific. Tourists made the most of the fading light, grabbing selfies with the Hollywood sign shining in the distance. It was a perfect California night. Have you visited Los Angeles in recent months? Share your experience in the comments
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
Inside the secret plan to close a famous piece of our history because it doesn't 'align with Indigenous reconciliation' - and the half-truth Aussies are being told
A council secretly planned to shut down a historic site in Australia because it did not align with Indigenous reconciliation plans. Newly emerged documents revealed Melbourne City Council had intended in 2023 to close Cooks' Cottage, in Fitzroy Gardens, due to its complicated history. State Liberal MP David Davis obtained hundreds of pages of council papers following a Freedom of Information appeal in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Those documents detailed the council's plans to close the colonial home as it didn't align with Indigenous reconciliation plans and truth-telling commitments. Council staff were also given a script to read to locals inquiring about the closure, and told to blame a decline in visitor numbers for the decision. The 270-year-old home was built by the parents of Captain James Cook in 1775 in Great Ayton, Yorkshire. Cook never lived in the two-storey brick cottage, as it was built ten years after he'd left home. Australian philanthropist Sir Russell Grimwade paid to have the house carefully deconstructed in England and brought to Melbourne in 1934 for the centenary of English settlement in the city. Its page on the council's website detailed how individually-labelled bricks and snippets of the home's original crawling ivy were brought across the world. The cottage now offers education about Australia's colonial history but has become an increasingly controversial attraction in Melbourne. The building and nearby statue of Cook have repeatedly been vandalised, especially on Australia Day, as attitudes remain divided on how Australia should reckon with its colonial past and subsequent violence against Indigenous populations. The 2023 council review papers stated: 'Overwhelmingly, accounts of Cook's voyages in the public domain are driven by perceptions of Cook as a "discoverer". 'The realities of the voyages, and voices of First Nations communities, are excluded in favour of one-sided European tellings of this history and Cook's legacy.' The documents also included a script for council customer service staff to follow when dealing with inquiries about the proposed closure. It called for staff to cite a 'significant decline' in Cooks' Cottage visitors as the reason for its closing. Information about the council's concerns for Indigenous reconciliation were omitted. A media release from chief executive Alison Leighton had also been prepared alongside numbers showing visitor numbers significantly declined during Covid, at a cost of $400,000 to the council. Davis slammed the council's proposal to close the cottage, which he labelled 'the nation's oldest building'. 'This is nothing but a shameful attempt to cancel a vital part of Victorian and national history,' he told the Herald Sun. 'It's disappointing the City of Melbourne is questioning the value of the cottage simply because it lacks Aboriginal perspectives. 'While it's important to tell the full story of our shared history, this site remains a rare, tangible link to Australia's early British heritage and a much-loved destination for visitors.' Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece told Daily Mail there were no current plans to close Cooks' Cottage. 'All of Melbourne's history has shaped the city we know today and Cooks' Cottage remains a valued part of that story - and it will stay open,' he said. 'We regularly review our visitor experiences to ensure they continue to meet community needs, attract visitors and remain financially sustainable. 'Cooks' Cottage is one of many ways people can connect with Melbourne's rich history - alongside our arts and heritage collection, monuments, and our upcoming Stolen Generations Marker.' Fred Grimwade, Sir Russell's great-great-nephew, previously told the Herald his family was no longer involved with the cottage. However, the Grimwades supported efforts to ensure it is 'presented in a context and manner that reflects contemporary social and community attitudes but is respectful of history'. Cooks' Cottage is open every day from 10am to 4pm. It is located on the southern end of the Fitzroy Gardens, in Melbourne's CBD.
