Take a deep breath, Michigan: The stinky 'corpse flower' is ready to bloom
- A ‘corpse flower’ is expected to bloom this weekend at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids
- Once it blooms, the giant, rare flower emits a strong odor similar to rotten flesh
- The flower can take up to a decade to grow and is only open for a few days, at most, after it blooms.
A rare, smelly flower will soon bloom at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. Once it blooms, the Amorphophallus titanum, also called titan arum, may be more identifiable by its smell than appearance.
The flower is often referred to as the “corpse flower” because of the smell it releases once it blooms, which is similar to that of rotten flesh or a decaying animal.
The flower is expected to bloom between Friday and Sunday. People interested in seeing the flower can purchase tickets online. The corpse flower is inside the Grace Jarecki Seasonal Display Greenhouse at the botanical garden.
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“This is an incredibly exciting and unique thing to experience,” said Steve LaWarre, senior vice president of horticulture at Frederik Meijer Gardens. “Many people go through their entire careers never seeing an example like this in person.”
The flower is on loan from Grand Valley State University’s Barbara Kindschi Greenhouse. It was named “The Beast” by GVSU staff and last bloomed in 2022. See it bloom in this time-lapse video. As of Wednesday, it stood at 58.8 inches, or just under 5 feet tall.
Frederik Meijer Gardens has its own corpse flower, nicknamed “Putricia,” which bloomed for the first time in 2018.
Once a corpse flower blooms, it only stays open for 48 to 72 hours, according to the U.S. Botanic Garden, but “The Beast” is expected to be open for one or two days. The smell is only present in the first 12 to 24 hours when female flowers are attracting pollinators.
Corpse flowers are native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and can live up to 40 years. They are the largest unbranched inflorescence flowers, reaching heights up to 8 feet tall — 12 feet tall in their natural habitat. The blooming cycle is often unpredictable because the flower only blooms when it has enough energy stored. It can either take a few years to bloom after it was planted or as long as a decade.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the corpse flower as endangered because there are fewer than 1,000 mature individual flowers left in the wild.
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