A rare plant famous for smelling like decaying flesh is about to put on one of nature’s most unusual shows.
Scarlet, the famous corpse flower at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers, is expected to bloom any day now, unleashing one of nature’s strangest spectacles: a towering flower that smells like rotting flesh.
And Bay Area residents are eagerly awaiting it.
“These blooms are really short-lived,” said Brandi Eide, curator and conservation lead at the Gardens of Golden Gate Park. “They’re only typically open for about two days. So it’s pretty ephemeral.”
That slim window is part of what makes a corpse flower bloom so momentous. The endangered plant, officially known as Amorphophallus titanum, or titan arum, can spend years quietly storing energy underground before suddenly erupting into a flowering event that lasts just between 24 and 48 hours.
To attract carrion beetles and flesh flies, the plant releases chemicals that mimic a dead animal. The unsuspecting insects arrive expecting a meal and instead end up pollinating the flower.
The scent is so convincing that Eide said it evolves throughout the evening.
According to Eide, it starts with “a little bit of a funk like onion, garlic,” before the stench begins to resemble a “hot garbage truck in the summer.”
“And then it can change into pretty distinctly dead rodent,” Eide continued.
Other observers have detected notes of stinky feet, spoiled food and sewage. Every bloom brings a different odor.
“If you’ve never seen or smelled it, it’s really something not to be missed,” Eide said.
Most years, the plant doesn’t flower at all. Instead, it produces a single giant leaf that can grow up to 15 feet tall, resembling a small tree.
“Every once in a while, instead of a leaf, we have a flowering event, which is what we’re witnessing today,” Eide said. “The whole process is always very exciting because it’s so unpredictable.”
The species is native to the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, where it is currently endangered due to habitat loss, particularly from the expansion of palm oil plantations.
During peak bloom, the central stalk, known as the spadix, actually heats up to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit through a process called thermogenesis. That heat helps carry the stench farther into the surrounding environment, making it easier for pollinators to detect.
“The temperature fluctuation helps pump the stinky chemicals out into the forest to attract those pollinators from far away,” Eide said.
In the final days before opening, the flower’s growth slows, the base swells and the deep burgundy spathe begins to unfurl from the central stalk. This week, staff have been closely monitoring those signs.
“We’re actually sending pictures back and forth to each other as we speak,” Eide said. “We’re still on watch.”
Once the bloom begins, visitors will only have a narrow window to catch it at its smelliest. The strongest odor usually arrives during the first evening and lingers into the next morning.
In fact, the Conservatory has created a special “maximum stink hour” for members during the final hour of the first night’s extended opening.
The bloom is expected to draw large crowds. During previous corpse flower events, roughly 7,000 people visited over just a few days.
Anyone hoping to experience Scarlet’s stench should keep a close eye on the Conservatory’s Instagram, Facebook, website and livestream. Once blooming is confirmed, the Conservatory will activate extended evening hours and release timed-entry tickets.
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