Corpse flower blooms for 2nd time
Seeing it is not the most important part of believing it — you only have to smell it.
“Phil,” Cal State Long Beach’s celebrity corpse flower bloomed for the second time in two years Monday evening, a quick turnaround for the putrid-smelling plant that normally unfurls once a decade. The smell can be described as dirty laundry, excessive body odor, or as its more grim namesake implies — like rotten flesh.
In 2019, when Phil first bloomed, thousands of people eager to take in the odd aroma for themselves flocked to the campus. But because of the CSULB’s coronavirus health and safety guidelines, the rare opportunity to witness its blooming was instead livestreamed by the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics to the public.
The corpse flower — also known as titan arum — is native to the rain forests of Sumatra. Its regular bloom cycle can take anywhere between five-to-10 years, but only lasts around 24 hours. But with proper care, the blooms can happen every two-to-three years, said Brian Thorson, CSULB’s botanical curator technician.
“We feed it a very nutrient-dense fertilizer,” Thorson said, “and in the greenhouse’s humid environment, it’s the ideal conditions for it to grow.”
Thorson, who joined CSULB in 2008, has collected a variety of plants over the years, including the Phil, and a second corpse flower named Laura.
But now that it has completed its bloom cycle, the fetid flower will soon die — though Phil will live on. The living part of the plant lies underground, Thorson said, through its stem and roots. It is considered perennial, which means Phil could be around for a long time to come.
And when Phil or Laura next spread their smell across campus, Thorson said he hopes the public will be able to experience it.
“It’s great to see all these people on campus interested in what’s going on here,” Thorson said. “Seeing the faces and reactions to the smell doesn’t get old.”