More than 130,000 people trekked to the United States Botanic Garden last week to see its stinky titan arum “corpse flower” in bloom.
But residents of Wisconsin who didn’t make it to Washington to see — and smell — the flower may have another chance. The D.C. Smith Greenhouse at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has multiple corpse flowers of its own, and staffers say one of theirs is also about to bloom, the seventh at UW-Madison since 2001.
The greenhouse is posting updates of the flower’s status on its Facebook page. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, the flower was still closed up tight. But greenhouse staff say the bloom is imminent and may occur Wednesday.
Once the flower opens, visitors will have a limited window to see it before it closes up again. Flowers of the titan arum plant last only 24 to 48 hours after they bloom.
The flower is so ephemeral in part because it takes a tremendous amount of energy for the plant to create its gigantic blooms, which can grow to more than 10 feet tall. The flowers also give off a lot of heat, which helps spread their odor — a necessity in the wild where they may need to attract pollinators from several miles away.
“It’s essentially burning itself up and burning itself out,” said greenhouse manager Johanna Oosterwyk.
But the flower is impressive while it lasts. It has a tall, pale protrusion called a spadix poking up from a petal-like red or maroon spathe. While the entire thing looks like one flower, the spadix is actually a collection of many smaller flowers.
And visitors can’t miss the characteristic rotting-flesh odor, which comes from various sulfur compounds that the flower gives off. This smell attracts carrion-loving insects like flies and beetles, which help pollinate the plant.
Until recently, the Milwaukee Public Museum had several corpse flowers, which last bloomed in 2008 and 2010.
But according to Neil Luebke, the museum’s curator of botany, the plants were grown in the butterfly vivarium. When the museum lowered the temperature and humidity in the butterfly exhibit to make it more comfortable for guests, the plants no longer thrived, and were sent off to other museums and botanic gardens around the country.
The Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee also has a large corpse flower that started to bloom July 16 this year, but according to tropical dome horticulturist Patrick Kehoe, the plant was vandalized before it could open fully and start giving off its characteristic smell. Kehoe said it will probably be at least two years before that plant blooms again.
That leaves Madison as one of the best places for Wisconsin residents to get a whiff of the flower in person this summer. And for those outside Madison, visiting the flower may be worth the drive.
“It’s a rarity,” Oosterwyk said. “It’s really impressive.”