An odorous occasion at the San Antonio Zoo
The first endangered corpse flower to bloom in city will give visitors a sight — and a stench — they won’t soon forget
SAN ANTONIO — Visitors may need to hold their noses while visiting the San Antonio Zoo.
The corpse flower, or titan arum, is expected to bloom this week or early next week, the zoo said. The world's largest — and smelliest — flower is known for its rotting odor once it blooms. The smell is often described as resembling that of rotting flesh.
The plant is native to the rainforests of Sumatra in Indonesia. It can take more than 10 years for it to get its first bloom.
“Get your nostrils ready,” zoo CEO and President Tim Morrow said in a statement. “Our team estimates the plant could bloom in the next 10 days.”
It is believed that this is the first time a corpse flower will bloom in San Antonio.
Houston has had at least two famous corpse flowers. Lois bloomed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science's butterfly center in July 2010, an occasion marked on the flower's Twitter account. And then there was Lou, which bloomed there in 2018.
On Friday, San Antonio's stinky flower was moved near to the whooping crane habitat for public viewing. Once it blooms, the flower is expected to last between one and four days.
Corpse flowers can grow up to 8 feet tall. They generate their own heat, which helps the flower's stench travel further. More than 30 chemicals produce the smell, which attracts pollinators such as carrion beetles and flesh flies.
“Its unusual way of attracting pollinators — its odor — makes this flower special, but it is also the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom,” said Ariana Duffey, a conservation technician with zoo's Center for Conservation & Research.
It is estimated that there are fewer than 1,000 individual flowers in the wild, and they are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Logging and the conversion of the plant's native habitat to oil palm plantations are to blame, according to the U.S. Botanic Garden.
The plant blooms only a limited number of times during its life cycle — and only once a sufficient amount of energy has been accumulated, which can take anywhere from a few years to more than a decade.
The zoo's corpse flower is 20 years old and has never bloomed, said Cyle Perez, a spokesman for the zoo.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in California gifted the flower to the zoo earlier this year.
“We are excited to study this species up close,” Duffey said, adding that the zoo hopes to develop a much larger collection of rare and endangered plants.
Recently, the zoo said it has noticed indicators that the flower is ready to bloom.
“It can be possible to distinguish between a leaf and a flower early on when it's a bud, and based on its current anatomy, we know it will flower,” Duffey said. “Comparing our plant's size and growth pattern with those of other plants, we can predict it will open very soon.”
The plants “typically give us signs when they are ready to blossom,” said Dante Fenolio, the zoo's vice president of conservation and research. “Once we see those indicators, we have around 24 hours.”
The zoo will be providing updates on its social media pages.
Visitors can view the flower with standard admission.
“There's something about the environment here that the flower seems to enjoy,” Perez said. “It will be an exciting and historic moment when it does bloom.”