https://www.npr.org/2023/07/06/1186289347/corpse-flower-bloom-california-where-to-see-livestream-san-diego-francisco

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A corpse flower bloom is an odorous occasion The Titan Arum has
become a rockstar in the plant world for its unpredictable displays,
and more notoriously, its putrid stench of rotting flesh.
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Unspeakably stinky and unpredictable: two corpse flowers are blooming
in the U.S.

July 6, 20235:36 PM ET
Headshot of Manuela Lopez Restrepo

Manuela Lopez Restrepo

Unspeakably stinky and unpredictable: two corpse flowers are blooming
in the U.S.

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A corpse flower blooms at the Belgian National Botanic Gardens in
2020. Laurie Dieffembacq/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Laurie Dieffembacq/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images

A corpse flower blooms at the Belgian National Botanic Gardens in
2020.

Laurie Dieffembacq/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images

The Titan Arum, or corpse flower, has become a rockstar in the plant
world for its unpredictable displays, and more notoriously, its
putrid stench of rotting flesh.

What is it? The very large flowering plant is related to the calla
lily, and in fact looks like a supersized and more macabre version,
with a large central spike surrounded by a frilly maroon skirt of a
leaf.

  * The Titan Arum is native only to the Indonesian island of
    Sumatra, but has become even more difficult to see in the wild
    due to habitat loss. In the last few decades, advances in
    technology and horticultural knowledge have allowed botanical
    gardens to cultivate the corpse flower more widely.
  * If you're not familiar with why the flower has its distinctive
    name - when the corpse flower unfurls, tiny male and female
    flowers at the base of its large central spike emit a putrid
    odor, akin to rotting meat and stinky laundry.
  * Titan Arums have a fairly long and unpredictable flowering cycle,
    and they can take up to a decade before they flower for the first
    time. Even mature plants can go years between blooms.
    Essentially, they work on their own schedules - which is part of
    the excitement for viewers.

     
    View this post on Instagram

    A post shared by San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
    (@conservatoryofflowers)

What's the big deal? Right now, two corpse flowers are blooming in
California.

  * One is at San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers, while the
    other is at the San Diego Botanic Gardens.
  * The Conservatory's corpse flower is named Scarlet, and last
    bloomed in 2019. She began blooming again earlier this week, and
    is still standing tall for her many visitors in San Francisco's
    Golden Gate Park.
  * San Diego's flower du jour last bloomed in 2021, and is already
    noticeably more shriveled than the peak event earlier this week.
    That's because corpse flower blooms are brief, shining, stinky
    moments in time, typically lasting just a couple days.

     
    View this post on Instagram

    A post shared by San Diego Botanic Garden
    (@sandiegobotanicgarden)

What are people saying? Ari Novy, president and CEO at the San Diego
Botanic Garden, spoke to NPR's Daniel Estrin about witnessing the
symphony of stench in real time.

His own description of the corpse flower's perfume:

    The way I describe it is it smells like if you took your
    teenager's dirty laundry and you put it in a big black garbage
    bag, and then you added in some hamburger meat, maybe some fish,
    a little garlic and some parmesan cheese. And you left that by
    the side of the road on a very hot desert day for about 24 hours.
    And then you came back to it. That's not even exaggerating. That
    is really what the smell was.

On why the corpse flower has evolved to smell this rank:

    There are insects out there that really like the smell of rotting
    flesh or other fetid or rotting odors. And those insects can
    pollinate plants. There are several plants that utilize this
    strategy of using rotting flesh odors that humans find repulsive
    to attract a bunch of insects who actually love that smell.

On the public reaction to the bloom:

    This is like the rock star plant of the plant world. It's kind of
    like a panda if you were in a zoo. It's amazing, people come from
    all over the place. We had one bloom about 18 months ago and a
    guy saw it on the webcam in Texas and immediately got in his car
    so that he could make it for the blooming. And he drove day and
    night and got to San Diego 14 hours later. This plant really
    brings out people, and for a smell that's so putrid and
    disgusting for human beings, somehow we're still pretty attracted
    to it.

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So, what now?

  * If you're local to either establishment and want to catch the
    tail end of the bloom, you better head out quickly; the flowers
    will continue to droop from here on out.
  * And if you were hoping to catch that signature stench, Novy says
    better luck next time: "At this point in the blooming cycle, it's
    done with its formal flowering. The flowers have done their work
    and so it doesn't have that much of a smell. There's some
    residual, but the real pungent punch typically comes in the
    evening, early morning on the first and second nights of
    flowering."

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