A Corpse Flower Is Blooming at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers — and It Stinks

Updated 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, July 9

At the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, something rare, massive, and a little stinky is happening.

A human-sized Amorphophallus titanum — better known as a corpse flower — is in a full, dramatic, short-lived bloom. The flower, which staffers have dubbed “Chanel,” opened Tuesday afternoon. The Conservatory is extending its hours Wednesday, the organization said on a social media post.

The cabbage-like leaves, called the spathe, have opened on the plant, fully revealing the tall central spike known as the spadix.

“The bloom is a large work in progress because it takes about three years since the last bloom for all the energy to be stored up by this plant,” said Lindzy Bivings, interpretive programs manager at the Gardens of Golden Gate Park, which oversees the Conservatory of Flowers.

Native to the islands of Sumatra in Indonesia, which are also home to the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia, only a few thousand corpse flowers remain in the wild and are considered vulnerable.

Corpse flowers produce the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world — a technical term for a cluster of flowers — and are capable of reaching over 10 feet tall.

Corpse flowers emit a uniquely pungent aroma that smells like rotting flesh or decaying meat. A real attraction for the carrion beetle, a pollinator that typically lays their eggs in dead animals.

“That stench is mimicking the smell of a dead animal,” Bivings explained. “It’s called deception. It’s a deceptive pollination strategy, a real scientific term, which is fun.”

Not only does the flower emit a terrible odor, but it also generates heat through a process called thermogenesis. “The spadix can heat up,” Bivings said, referencing the fleshy, tall central part of the plant that holds the tiny flowers. “Part of that heat is thought to volatilize the odor,” she said. “In the wild, that scent can be smelled from up to a mile away.”

The bloom will last only 24 to 48 hours.

“If you want the smell, come the night of or early the next morning,” Bivings advised. “If you just want to see the amazing flower, you can come anytime the next day or the day after.”

Chanel is part of a larger conservation effort among botanical gardens worldwide to preserve corpse flowers. “There are botanical gardens working to do genetic studies so we can determine whether or not the corpse flowers in different gardens could be used to have a diverse enough set of genetics,” Bivings said.

Chanel follows in the footsteps of other famous Conservatory blooms, including Scarlet in 2023 and Mirage in 2024, which the conservatory gifted to the California Academy of Sciences in 2017.

In 2023, over 7,000 people visited Scarlet during its peak bloom, which coincided with the July 4th weekend.

To manage the crowds, the Conservatory will extend its hours and keep the building open late on the night of the bloom, until approximately 9 p.m. “We are so thrilled to have Chanel be able to bloom,” Bivings said. Folks can also follow along virtually, with an option to watch the live stream. For the latest updates, be sure to check the conservatory’s social media.

“It’s so fascinating that it [the corpse flower] stores so much energy that it can literally grow from zero to six feet within two months. And sometimes what happens is that it only produces one leaf per year, but that one leaf can get to be 12 feet tall,” Bivings said. “And so I just think this energy cycle is so incredibly fascinating.”