It happened again. The rare corpse flower housed in the Science and Engineering Building at WSU Vancouver bloomed again June 29 – 30, attracting thousands of curious noses. Corpse flower blooms come and go quickly—in just 24 – 48 hours. When they bloom, they emit an odor that is often described as rotting flesh. The odor attracts pollinators such as dung beetles and flesh flies that help ensure the continuation of the floral species.
“It smells like a penguin enclosure,” one visitor said. “It smells like meat on the edge of going bad,” said another. Rotting crab, hot trash and dirty sweat socks were common olfactory likenesses mentioned.
This time the scent may have been more concentrated because Titan VanCoug, as the corpse flower is known on campus, was allowed to bloom in its regular home in the Science and Engineering Building. Previous blooms have taken place outdoors. Because there was a 12-foot leaf with a seven-foot canopy sharing the pot with the bloom, the pot couldn’t be removed from the building without risking harm to the plants.
Years ago, the corpse flower’s corm (tuber) cloned. Now four plants reside in one pot. At the time of the bloom, you could see a leaf, fruit from the 2022 bloom and the 2023 bloom. It was unusual to see the plants in three different life stages at one time in one place. A leaf is growing from the fourth corm.
In late June and early July, three other corpse flowers across the country bloomed: Scarlet, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, Wolfgang at North Carolina State University’s JC Raulston Arboretum and an unnamed corpse flower at the San Diego Botanic Garden.
About the corpse flower
The corpse flower (Latin name Amorphophallus titanum, also known as titan arum) is native to the limestone hills of Sumatra, Indonesia’s rainforests, the only place in the world where it naturally grows. The population of wild corpse flowers is dwindling due to deforestation and palm oil agriculture.
Corpse flowers are among the world’s largest and rarest flowering structures. These plants are uncommon in cultivation. They bloom rarely—typically after 7 to 10 years of growth, and just once every four or five years afterward throughout a 40-year expected life span.