One of several, exotically bizarre corpse flowers owned by a San Francisco institution is about to unfurl its first ever unholy-smelling blossom next week, and once again people are probably going to line up for this.
We are rather silly with riches when it comes to corpse flowers in SF, to the point that these rarely blooming specimens seem to bloom every year or so around here. In fact, it's because the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park has five of these plants tucked away that we seem to have news of a foul-smelling bloom happening pretty regularly — there was one last summer, the plant named Scarlet, and Chanel the Titan bloomed there the previous summer, for instance.
The California Academy of Sciences has just one corpse flower that has been living in the rainforest sphere, named Mirage, and the five-year-old plant is getting ready to bloom for the first time since its installation, sometime between February 25 and February 29.
As is the plant's wont, when the bloom is about to happen, the titan arum or Amorphophallus titanum shoots up a five- to ten-foot phallus, and sometime after that, it's big spathe — like a large petal — unfurls to reveal a dark red interior and a complex of small flowers inside. The corpse-and-feet stench is meant to attract carrion beetles and flies, which polinate the plant.
The stinky part lasts several days before the phallus and flower collapse, and the plant then fruits.
Some titan arum plants go seven years between flower cycles, only shooting up a leafy, tree-like thing once a year instead. But some titan arums will flower every couple of years — and thus with five of these guys at the Conservatory of Flowers, there are many opportunities to go smell one.
As of today, Mirage's bloom stands at 65.5 inches, but the Cal Academy expects it will reach seven feet by the time it's done.
The plant is native to Sumatra, in Indonesia, and its novelty has meant that many botanic gardens around the U.S. now have a specimen.
Follow the Academy of Sciences on Instagram for updates on the blooming, and head on over there if you need to get an in-person whiff.
If you miss it, you'll probably have another chance before long at the Conservatory of Flowers.
Previously: Rare Corpse Flower Set to Bloom at San Francisco Conservatory in Next Two Weeks
Top image: timtast1c/Cal Academy
