This summer’s final opportunity to view the corpse flower in the San Diego Botanic Garden
Here’s how to see the well-known stinky flower; if it blooms one more time during the next week, it might be the last of the year.Here’s how to see the well-known stinky flower; if it blooms one more time during the next week, it might be the last of the year.
After its “sibling” plant appeared a few weeks ago, if you haven’t scented it yet, another corpse flower is about to bloom at the San Diego Botanic Garden this coming week.
After a lengthy journey, the flower finally opened for business over the weekend of June 28. Only a few hours were left to experience its potent scent. After a naming competition held by the conservatory, the people gave this bloom the nickname Uncle Fester. And now, a second blossom appears out of nowhere.
The corpse flower, or Amorphophallus titanum, gives off a strong scent that is like a decaying body or cadaver while it is in full bloom for 48 hours. Since most corpse flowers take seven to ten years to bloom for the first time and only bloom again every four to five years after that, a corpse flower’s bloom is a unique and unusual occurrence.
Although the precise date of this fresh flower’s blossoming is unknown, it is anticipated to occur this week. To have a chance of seeing this uncommon bloom, San Diego Garden Botanic Garden advises people to follow them on social media on a daily basis.
The garden will remain open from 7 a.m. until 12 a.m. in the Dickinson Family Education Conservatory at the Garden until the flower blossoms. There will also be longer hours on Sunday.
A detailed view of the Corpse Flower, which opened for bloom on June 28, 2024, at the San Diego Botanic Garden.
San Diego Botanic Garden (SDBG) reports that these two plants seem to be on the same cycle because they have both bloomed before, first in 2018 and then again in 2021, both within 30 days of one another.
According to Ari Novy, PhD, President and CEO of SDBG, “We are incredibly fortunate to be presenting our second corpse flower bloom of the year from a plant within our permanent collection.” The plant that recently blossomed here in late June is a sibling of this one. We are thrilled to share this experience with the community once more because of the amazing response to the most recent bloom. This is your chance to see the last bloom if you were unable to attend.
Corpse plant livestreamed for 24 hours
Since a blooming corpse flower can change rapidly, the garden is recording a live, 24-hour feed of the plant that can be found here (called Corpse Cam).
The corpse flower stinks; why is that?
According to SDBG, the corpse flower got its moniker by pretending to smell like rotting meat to draw pollinators like flies and carrion beetles. Its huge spadix, the large yellow stalk protruding from the center, generates heat to raise its aroma high into the trees, attracting pollinators from a greater distance and increasing the plant’s chances of being pollinated.
According to some who have ventured to sniff it, it smells like cheese, garlic, rotten fish, diapers, or dirty feet!
According to NBC 7’s Joe Little, the flower blossomed on Halloween at the San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas for the first time since 2018. This is only the second time in the flower’s 14-year history.
Why is the blossoming of the corpse flower so uncommon?
Before they bloom for the first time, the majority of these native to the Sumatra rainforest require seven to ten years of age. They only bloom again every four to five years after that.
It will only release its infamous stink for three days after it has fully bloomed, after which it will begin to slowly seal up and deteriorate over the following few weeks.
Novy declared, “The corpse flower is the stinky rock star of the plant world.”
“In its natural habitat in Sumatra, Indonesia, its putrescence draws pollinators, but it also draws inquisitive people from all over the world who are eager to see this stunning, foul-smelling, enormous inflorescence.”
