Frank Zappa warned against the perils of wearing a desert boot in hot weather. “You got stinkfoot!” Arizona, known for its hot weather has got another stinky problem. Stinknet! Warning! Stinky flower shuts down a national monument picnic area!
Stinky flower? Stinknet!
This is no belated April Fools’ joke. Arizona’s Casa Grande Ruins National Monument says its picnic area is off-limits until at least May. The cause? The invasive stinknet plant. While it bears a pretty, globular flower, stinknet lives up to its noxious-to-the-nose name. Come up against this plant with your smelling system, and you’ll think someone has uncapped the turpentine tin. Come up against stinknet with your skin, you’ll likely come away with a rash.
The stinky flower that shuts down a national monument picnic area hasn’t always been a problem in the area. Invasive plant watchers say the Oncosiphon pilulifer, also known as globe chamomile, spread across parts of Arizona after several years of wet winters. Now officials at the monument want visitors to stay out of the picnic area, for fear of what might happen to them, and to prevent further spread of the nasty thing.
But here’s something that smells better
But while there’s bad news here, there’s also some good news. Casa Grande Ruins National Monument has dropped its entry fee requirement. It may not be a picnic—but it’s free.
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Thank you, Russ and Tina! 🙂 Funny, unless one is unable to escape the odor. 🤔😯 There is a plant in the National Botanical Garden in DC that blooms every 3-10 years in the wild and it is stinky like a decaying corpse ( https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/07/06/corpse-flower-blooms-us-botanic-garden/). I immediately wondered if there were similar plants in Arizona. I guess for the sake of Arizonans it is good that they haven’t any corpse flowers. Thanks again and safe travels! 🙂