Lifestyle
Smell that? A rare corpse flower is about to bloom at the Huntington
It’s sweaty stinky time again at the Huntington Library, Art Gallery, and Botanic Gardens. One of its rare corpse flowers is about to bloom, in all its putrescence. In the next 10 to 12 days, expect visitors to be lined up to enter the Huntington’s sauna-like viewing area in San Marino to give this giant, fantastically weird tropical plant a sniff.
Corpse flowers (Amorphophallus titanum) are native to the rain forests of Sumatra in Indonesia, so they like it hot and steamy. They also bloom once every four to six years in the wild for only 24 hours before they start closing again, so viewing windows are short and rare.
If you miss seeing this one in person, you’re in luck. The Huntington has 43 corpse flowers in its collection, which spend most of their time in a greenhouse removed from public view. Over time, the staff has developed ways to coax the plants into blooming every two to three years, said Brandon Tam, associate curator of the Huntington’s orchid (and corpse flower) collection. With so many plants, there are usually a few primed to bloom every year.
In 2023, for instance, the Huntington had four plants bloom between July and October, Tam said. And one of last year’s bloomers, named Stankosaurus Rex for its massive 8-foot height, is now fruiting, so it looks like a tall upright club covered with plump crimson orbs.
The Huntington has had many corpse flowers fruit since its first display in 1999, and it’s used the seeds from those fruits to grow new plants for its collection and for other botanic gardens that want their own corpse flowers. But this is the first time the Huntington has been able to show off a blooming plant next to one that is fruiting, Tam said.
Curator Brandon Tam stands next to a blooming corpse flower in 2023 that was named Allan after Ken’s best friend from last year’s wildly popular “Barbie” movie.
(The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens)
The flower’s fruit is the favored food of the rhinocerus hornbill but is toxic to humans, Tam said, so don’t try to sample it. Also, the flower gets pollinated by the insects attracted to its rotten smell, “typically sweat bees, flesh flies and carrion beetles who enjoy the pungent odor,” he said.
The pollinators are usually insects looking for the decaying carcasses of animals to lay eggs on, Tam said, “which is why they’re looking for stinky things. The flower is trying to mimic that odor of a dead carcass, and its entire base is a dark maroon red to mimic bloody carcasses of dead animals. Plants are just so fascinating, especially this one.”
As for the flower’s stench, uh, “fragrance,” some people equate it to rotting meat or stinky gym socks, but it seems to change depending on the sniffer, said Keisha Raines, the Huntington’s communications associate. “To me, it smells like a really bad trash can with heavy cabbage smells,” she said. “I used to work at a vegetarian restaurant in high school, and that flower smells like the trash there the day before it was collected.”
Tam believes the flower will bloom in the next 10 to 12 days. It’s hard to precisely predict when, he said, because its bloom is affected by the weather. “The hotter it is, the faster it blooms.” (If you want to see one bloom now, the Huntington’s website features a time lapse of the 2022 bloom.)
A closeup detail of a closed corpse flower before it blooms. (The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens)
The deep maroon skirt of a blooming corpse flower mimics the color of rotting flesh, part of its ploy, along with its putrid “fragrance,” to attract carrion-loving pollinators. (Linnea Stephan / The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens)
Corpse flowers bloom for just 24 hours, so their blooms always attract a crowd like this one at the Huntington in 2023.
(The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens)
Typically, corpse plants bloom at night, but the Huntington’s social media team will send out updates and alerts as the time gets nearer, Tam said. You can also watch the flower’s progress on a live webcam and daily growth chart. When the bloom looks imminent, go online to get your ticket and arrive as early as you can in the morning.
The Huntington is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Monday and closed on Tuesday. (Tam said he feels fairly certain this flower won’t bloom on a Tuesday.)
If that suspense is not enough, the Huntington is also asking the public to help name this year’s first blooming corpse plant. One of last year’s plants was dubbed “Allan the Amorphophallus,” in honor of Allan from the popular “Barbie” movie, said Raines. (Allan is Ken’s awkward best friend, which seemed fitting for a lovable stinky plant, “and we were in a very Barbie state of mind last year,” she said.)
People should post name ideas on the Huntington’s Instagram page, watch their social media and bring a fan for visiting the corpse flower in person. That’s because it gets steamy and hot inside the conservatory, Tam said, to the point that people actually walk outside for a little relief. With highs around the Huntington forecast to cool to the high 80s from the mid-90s next week, that could be a blessing for visitors.
Neve Campbell in Scream 7.
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The OG Scream Queen Neve Campbell returns. Scream 7 re-centers the franchise back on Sidney Prescott. She has a new life, a family, and lots of baggage. You know the drill: Someone dressing up as the masked slasher Ghostface comes for her, her family and friends. There’s lots of stabbing and murder and so many red herrings it’s practically a smorgasbord.
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Abriana Vicioso is the host of the Flower Hour, which takes place monthly.
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
Each flower carries a personal history. For Abriana Vicioso, the calla lily was her parents’ wedding flower — a symbol of her mother’s beauty. “She had this big, beautiful white calla lily in her hair,” Vicioso says. “I love my parents. They’re the reason I’m here. I’ll never forget where I came from.”
The Flower Hour begins with Vicioso announcing, with a warm smile: “Today is about touching grass.” The florist-by-trade gestures behind her to hundreds of flowers contained in buckets — blue thistles, ivory anemones and calla lilies painted silver — all twisted and unfurling into the air. “Tonight is going to be so sweet and intimate,” Vicioso says, eyeing the beautiful chaos at her feet. A grin buds across her face.
Moments before the workshop, participants sit at candlelit tables exchanging horoscopes and comparing their favorite flowers. A mention of the illustrious bird-of-paradise flower elicits coos and awe from the women. Izamar Vazquez, who is from Jalisco, Mexico, reveals her fondness for roses, which make her feel connected to her Mexican roots.
Vicioso hosts her flower-themed wellness workshop near the iconic Original Los Angeles Flower Market in downtown L.A. In January, the first Flower Hour event sold out, prompting her to make it a monthly series. Vicioso describes the event as a “three-part journey” where participants are invited to drink herbal tea, smoke rose-petal-rolled cannabis joints and create a floral arrangement. “The guide is to connect with the medicine of flowers,” Vicioso says.
Rose petal joints, tea and flower arranging are all part of The Flower Hour event’s offerings.
The event is hosted at the Art Club, a membership-based co-working space. “The Flower Hour is really beautiful. Everyone gets to explore their creativity while meeting new people,” says Lindsay Williams, the co-owner of the Art Club.
The idea for Flower Hour came to Vicioso during a conversation with her mother. “We joke all the time that flowers were destined to make their way into my life,” she says. She works as a florist and models on the side, even appearing in the pages of Vogue. Vicioso grew up in a Caribbean household, where flowers and offerings were part of daily life. “In my culture and religion, a lot of my family practices — an Afro-Caribbean religion — we build altars.”
Like many cultures, flowers carry sentimental value in her religion. “I’m Caribbean, so a lot of my family practices a Yoruba religion, which comes from Africa. In the Caribbean, it’s well known as Santería.”
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After a difficult year and a breakup, Vicioso wanted to marry her love of flowers with community building. Because Vicioso uses cannabis medicinally, the workshop naturally includes a smoking component. “My family has smoked cannabis for a lot of reasons for a long time. It’s a really healing plant,” she explains.
In the workshop, even the cannabis gets the floral treatment. Vicioso presents her rose-petal-wrapped joints on a silver platter at each table. She rolled each by hand. “If you’ve never smoked a rose-petal-rolled joint, the difference with this is it’s going to have roses that have a slight tobacco effect,” she announces.
During the workshop, Vicioso stresses the importance of buying cannabis from local vendors. The cannabis provided was purchased from a Northern Californian vendor. The wellness workshop aims to reclaim the healing ritual of smoking cannabis. “This is a plant that has been commercialized,” Vicioso says. “There’s a lot of Black and Brown people who are in jail for this plant.”
The resulting workshop is what Vicioso describes as “an immersive wellness experience that is the intersection of wellness, creativity, community and an appreciation of flowers.” The workshop serves as a reminder to enjoy Earth’s innate beauty in the form of flowers — including cannabis. “It’s this gift that the universe gave us for free and that I have this deep connection with,” Vicioso says.
Conversation cards to generate discussion among participants (top, letf). The workshop serves as a “third space” for Angelenos to engage in tactile creativity and community building outside of traditional nightlife settings.
After enjoying lavender chamomile tea and smoking a joint, Vicioso introduces the flowers to the group before inviting them to pick their own. She emphasizes each flower’s personality traits, describing green dianthus as a “Dr. Seuss” plant. Then, there are calla lilies with their “main character moment.” It gets personal. “Start thinking of a flower in your life that you can discover,” she says. “If you’re feeling like you need inspiration, you can always remember that these flowers have stories.”
Vicioso infuses wisdom into her instruction on floral arrangements: There are no mistakes. Let the flowers tell you where they want to go, she urges. Intuition will be your guide — the wilder, the better.
“Hecho in Mexico” reads a sticker on a bunch of green stems. “Like me,” says Vazquez with a laugh. “They’re all doing their own thing. Like a family,” she says later, arranging stems.
The Flower Hour participants and Vicioso, center, chat as they build their own floral arrangements at the sold-out event.
Two participants — Vazquez and Rebeca Alvarado — are friends who run a floral design company together called Izza Rose. Like Vicioso, the friends have a connection to flowers through their Latin American culture. They met Vicioso in the floral industry and were overjoyed to discover her workshop.
“This is a great way to connect with other people,” says Vazquez.
Alvarado agrees, adding: “You’re getting to know people outside of going to bars. You can connect in different ways when there’s an activity.”
Vazquez uses flowers to stay connected to her Mexican heritage, adding that she prefers to support Mexican vendors. In recent months, the downtown L.A. flower market has struggled to recover from ongoing ICE raids. “Some are scared to come back,” says Vazquez.
Hand-rolled cannabis joints wrapped in rose petals are presented on a silver platter at The ArtClub (top, right). The Flower Hour aims to reclaim the healing rituals of cannabis and flowers.
Another participant, Barbara Rios, was attracted to the workshop for stress relief. “You can hang out with your friends, but it’s nice to do things with your hands,” she says. “I work a stressful job, and it’s nice to have that third space that we’re all craving.”
On this February night, the participants were predominantly women, save for one man. In the future, Vicioso hopes that more men learn to engage with flowers. “There’s a statistic about men receiving flowers for the first time at their funerals, and I think we have changed that,” she says.
To conclude the workshop, Vicioso encourages participants to build lasting friendships and incorporate flower arranging into their daily practice — even if it’s just with a small, inexpensive bouquet.
“Get some flowers together, go to the park, hang out with each other and hang out with me,” she says. Participants leave with flower arrangements in hand. In the darkness of the night air, it briefly looks as though the women carry silver calla lilies that are blooming from their palms.
An underwater view shows US’ Lilly King competing in a heat of the women’s 200m breaststroke swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on July 31, 2024. (Photo by François-Xavier MARIT / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP via Getty Images)
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This week’s show was recorded in Bloomington, Indiana with host Peter Sagal, judge and scorekeeper Bill Kurtis, Not My Job guest Lilly King and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Josh Gondelman, and Faith Salie. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
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