The Huntington’s long-awaited stink has arrived. Two corpse flowers nicknamed Odora and Odorysseus have bloomed at the San Marino conservatory, drawing thousands for the rare occasion and quickly surpassing last year’s numbers.
Corpse flowers have been a staple of the Huntington since 1999, when the garden exhibited its first corpse flower. Native to Sumatra, Indonesia, these plants are endangered in the wild and only bloom for 24 to 48 hours every few years. Once bloomed, they reek of rotting flesh.
As the day goes on, these smelly specimens will close back up and collapse, losing their infamously rotten odor.
The double bloom this summer was “definitely a surprise,” said Brandon Tam, the Huntington’s associate curator of orchids. The last time multiple corpse flowers bloomed on the same day at the Huntington was in 2018.
“We knew that Odorysseus was going to bloom probably Sunday,” Tam said. “But what surprised us was that we saw that Odora was opening just a few hours after.”
As an “inflorescence” — a plant structure containing hundreds of male and female flowers at the base — the plant usually staggers its bloom to avoid self-pollination.
A developmental irregularity caused Odora’s spadix to cave in, but the plant remains healthy, said Brandon Tam, the associate curator of orchids at the Huntington.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Jaime Holmes from San Gabriel holds her nose in front of the blooming corpse flowers.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
But sometimes, “these plants have a mind of their own,” Tam said.
Climate factors can influence when they bloom. Tam said Southern California’s recent high humidity may have signaled a prime environment for the plants to unfurl.
Visitors may have noticed that Odorysseus’ spadix — the conic protrusion emerging upward from the plant — was much taller than Odora’s, which had caved in. Tam said Odora’s spadix was a developmental irregularity, but emphasized the plant remains healthy.
“It just looks a little different — completely normal,” Tam said. “When it reblooms for us in three to four years, it’ll look just perfectly fine.”
At the time of the bloom, Odorysseus measured 71 inches in height, and Odora measured 41.
As of 8:51 a.m., the Huntington recorded over 5,700 reservations, said Keisha Raines, the Huntington’s assistant director of news and media relations. That number easily surpassed last year’s bloom, which drew about 4,900 visitors. It also excludes walk-ins and any more reservations made throughout the day.
Parking lots quickly filled inside the Huntington, forcing some visitors to park on the streets outside.
Raines thinks the rare double bloom influenced the spike in reservations. She also believes general awareness of the corpse flower increases each summer.
“It’s kind of lore,” Raines said. “It’s just continuing to build, and more people want to see it.”
Inside the conservatory, eager sniffers took selfies and marveled at the plants’ size and smell. Outside, the line ran all throughout the walkways, extending past the exit.
Ventura resident Michelle Shock and her 8-year-old daughter, Fable, initially came to the Huntington for a tea party at the Rose Garden, and dressed for the part in light-colored, semi-formal dresses. They scheduled the party two weeks ago and got lucky when they heard the corpse flowers were in bloom on the same day.
“I’ve always wanted to see one,” Shock said while waiting in line. “I think the last time I knew of one blooming was when I was pregnant with her. We were up in the Bay, and I missed it. So here we are now, together, which is better.”
Gastonia Goodman, 72, peers through the window at the blooming corpse flowers.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Fable predicted the plants would smell like “rotten flesh from Minecraft.” Shock guessed they’d smell like forgotten meat in a broken freezer or animal remains on a farm.
For spouses Jennifer Kraus and Abigail Cruz, the plants smelled like rotten garbage.
“It was pretty ripe,” Kraus said. “Totally enjoyed it though.”
The couple drove two hours from the Inland Empire to catch the bloom, which had been on Cruz’s bucket list.
“The minute that we saw it on Facebook, [Kraus] started following it and making sure that we’re here when it had bloomed,” Cruz said.
They were among the first to arrive, so the wait was short. “We were here at o-dark-30 this morning, ready to go,” Kraus said.
North Hollywood resident Lilla Saito took two hours off work to witness the corpse flowers for the first time and tracked the livestream every day, “just waiting for it to bloom.” Saito stood in line for about 45 minutes to catch a whiff, which Saito said “smelled like a trash room.”
It was Paige Patino’s first bloom too. Patino lives 10 minutes away from the Huntington and wore a T-shirt with flowers on it for the occasion. It was “really cool” to “see both of them active,” Patino said.
For Tam, this year’s stench ranks in the top three. He thinks each individual plant stinks more than previous blooms, but on top of that, he said: “The fact that we have two in bloom makes it stinkier.”
