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Move over corpse flower, Vancouver has a new celebrity plant: the ‘Snow Tower’

Rare towering plants now flowering at Bloedel Conservatory
The rare tree echieum, or “Snow Tower” plant, produces white flowers on a flower spike, which can re
The rare tree echieum, or “Snow Tower” plant, produces white flowers on a flower spike, which can reach up to 15-feet high. Photo Dan Toulgoet

Vancouver’s Bloedel Conservatory has a new celebrity in bloom and this one doesn’t raise a stink like last’s year’s corpse flower attraction.

Native to the Mediterranean and rare to Canada, several “Snow Tower” plants are now flowering, but only for a few weeks.

An endangered species native to La Palma, part of the Canary Islands, the tree echium (Echium pininana) is commonly known as tower of jewels, pine echium and giant viper’s bugloss.

The plants produce white flowers on a flower spike, which can reach up to 15-feet high.

“We expect these exotically beautiful tall plants will cause a lot of excitement among plant lovers,” said Vancouver Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon in a press release. “Flower buds will continue to unfurl and expand over the bloom phase, making the flower stalk wider and more impressive over time. It should flower into June before completing its life cycle and dying.”

For more information on the Bloedel Conservatory, go HERE.