More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
In a Netherlands garden blooms a rare plant with a tall, phallic shape. It's known as the "penis plant," and this is only the third time the species has flowered in Europe since 1997, according to the University of Leiden's botanical garden, Leiden Hortus Botanicus.
The six-year-old penis plant -- the scientific name for which is Amorphophallus decus-silvae -- was cultivated by garden volunteer Rudmer Postma, according to a news release. Garden personnel first noticed the flower bud in mid-September, and in just over a month, the bud has become about half a meter (over 3 feet) tall, with the narrow stem reaching up to 2 meters (over 6 feet) high.
"Few botanical gardens have Amorphophallus decus-silvae in their collection, making the flowering of the plant particularly rare," the release noted.
Native to tropical rainforest-rich Indonesia, the penis plant requires a very warm and humid growing environment and is therefore difficult to grow in Europe. But its terrible, pungent odor -- akin to rotting flesh -- helps gardeners predict when the plant will flower, which according to the release, happens in two stages: the female bloom phase and the male bloom phase.
During the female bloom phase, the white, phallus-shaped part of the flower called the spadix heats up and emits the stench.
"It didn't smell very bad yet, but (the odor) got more intense in the afternoon," said garden volunteer and yoga teacher Roos Kocken in a TikTok video she posted October 22.
Pollinators, including flies, are attracted to this smell, so they flock to the plant and become covered in pollen the plant produces during its male bloom phase. Since there isn't another penis plant at the Leiden Hortus Botanicus, staffers are collecting the pollen to use later or send to other botanical gardens, the university said.
For larger Amorphophallus plants, to have many years between blooms isn't unusual, said Susan Pell, the deputy executive director of the US Botanical Garden.
Amorphophallus plants' blooms emerge from their underground structures called corms, which are like the underground part of tree trunks, she explained.
"That bloom is just using up all of the energy that's been stored in that corm. And so in order to bloom again, that corm has to produce a series of leaves over ... somewhere between probably three and 10 or 12 years in order to get enough energy built back up in the corm to support a bloom, which really occupies that corm for more than a year," Pell added.
The plant's close relatives include Amorphophallus gigas and Amorphophallus titanum, or the corpse plant, the latter of which is well-known for its own stench during the flowering period. The corpse flower has been displayed at popular gardens including the Leiden Hortus Botanicus, the United States Botanic Garden and the San Diego Botanic Garden.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.