My colleague Dave Rosenthal, who blogs about books over at Read Street, is writing about flowers today.

The subject is the Corpse Flower that is blooming at a library (hence, the book angle) in California. A huge plant, it gets its name from its horrible smell.

As if it weren't tough enough to get people to read books....

Speaking of plants and death, I learned an interesting little tidbit while reporting yesterday on Waterfront Park, Baltimore's National Aquarium's bayscaped gardens.

The serviceberry, a colorful small tree or large shrub that produces berries at about this time of year, was named for the fact that, when it bloomed, it signaled that the ground had thawed enough to allow for burials.