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The newest bloom opened Monday. Other corpse flowers could bloom later this summer.
WASHINGTON — A rare flower with a unique stench opened for the first time this year at the U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG). According to a social media post by USBG, the smell would have been at its worst when the flower first bloomed Monday night, but some scent still remains.
The garden is open regular hours for visitors to check out the flower on their own. Officials expect the bloom to remain standing until Wednesday. USBG has several mature corpse flowers in their collection. Others might bloom later this summer, the garden said.
The corpse flower does not have an annual blooming cycle. The bloom emerges from, and energy is stored in, a huge underground stem called a "corm."
The plant blooms only when sufficient energy is accumulated, making time between flowering unpredictable, spanning from a few years to more than a decade. It requires very special conditions, including warm day and night temperatures and high humidity, making botanic gardens well suited to support this strange plant outside of its natural range, experts at the Botanic Garden said.
The plant is native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and first became known to science in 1878. In its natural habitat, the corpse flower can grow up to 12 feet tall. Public viewings of this unique plant have occurred a limited number of times in the United States.
The U.S. Botanic Garden has displayed blooming corpse flowers in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2017 (three blooms), 2020 (two blooms), 2021, and 2022 (four blooms).
The corpse flower is listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with an estimation of fewer than 1,000 individuals remaining in the wild.
English (US) ·