Meet Odora, the corpse flower ready to raise a stink at The Huntington
A botanical celebrity is getting ready for its close-up, and you only have days to take in its smelly appeal.
The newly-christened Odora, one of 43 resident corpse flowers at The Huntington Library, Art Gallery, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, was moved to the conservatory on July 10 for the public to view, alongside another specimen — Stankasaurus — in its fruiting stage.
This is the first time both flowering and fruiting stages of the plant are on display.
Brandon Tam, associate curator of The Huntington’s orchid collection, predicts the corpse flower, or Titan Arum, will stink up the place by this weekend.
“We’d love for people to understand the typical life cycle of this amazing plant,” he said.
The curious and brave only get a couple of days to see and smell the big, stinky show. Corpse flowers bloom for only about 24 hours every two or three years. Native to Indonesia, the tropical plant attracts a crowd any time it blooms, not only for its size and shape, but also for its distinct putrescence.
Tam said the stench is akin to boiled cabbage, dead rat or restaurant dumpster.
“The smell comes from chemical compounds dimethyl trisulfide and dimethyl disulfide,” he said, chemicals with notes of garlic and overripe cheese.
“The spadix, the baguette-looking part of the plant, heats up and distributes the smell to attract pollinators, and it’s usually strongest at night and the early morning,” Tam said. “Plants really have a mind of their own when it comes to assuring its lineage continues and have gone through many years of evolution.”
Among its unique elements: the corpse flower’s small red fruit is poisonous to humans but is a tasty snack for the rhinoceros hornbill bird. Its red bloom, designed to mimic a bloody carcass, attracts pollinators with equally vivid names such as carrion beetles, flesh flies and sweat flies.
Experts at the #HuntingtonLibrary expect its #Corpseflower to bloom by this weekend. The giant flower is known for its intense death-like aroma when it first blooms. #thehuntington pic.twitter.com/MS0SvcRJYb
— David Crane (@vidcrane) July 15, 2024
Odora is the 26th corpse flower at The Huntington since 1999. It has successfully nurtured blooms every year since 2018, growing its collection to 43 mature specimens and sharing plants as well as research with other botanical gardens.
“This is our 25th year growing corpse flowers, and it’s been trial and error, and experience, really, learning how best to propagate and protect this plant,” Tam said.
Each plant is different, Tam said. Odora is a bit of an overachiever. Tam estimates it will grow about 30 more inches before it blooms, or about 6 inches a day.
Stankasaurus Rex earned its name from its 8-foot height.
Last year’s bloomer was named Allan the Amorphophallus, after the character of Ken’s best friend in the movie “Barbie.”
The Huntington’s success with the Amorphophallus titanum, cultivating just the right tropical conditions when it comes to light, water, temperature, and humidity, branches right into the center’s missions of research, education and conservation.
Tam calls the corpse flower a “gateway plant” for visitors to explore the wonder and diversity of the plant kingdom.
“It’s a whole wild world of discovery,” he said.
Last year’s crowds numbered in the thousands, eager to smell the stink for themselves. And The Huntington informs anyone with a hankering to grow their own stinky specimen that yes, you can buy it online, but “this rare plant is for plant enthusiasts who want a challenge and will be committed to nearly a decade of nurturing and pampering this rare and attractive giant.”
Get a heads up and catch an online bloom watch at huntington.org/corpse-flower.