Corpse Flower Blooms
Something stinks on California State University, Long Beach’s campus and the Biological Sciences department is ecstatic.
A Corpse Lily – a plant known to emit a powerful aroma reminiscent of decomposing flesh – housed in the Biological Science Department’s greenhouse has bloomed. It is the first time this 7-year-old plant has flowered, and is a rare achievement for even very skilled botanists, says Botany Technician and Botanical Curator Brian Thorson.
“There have been a lot of seedlings that have been acquired by others, but most of them die before they bloom,” Thorson says. The plant is native to equatorial rain forests in Sumatra, but outside their natural habitat they are very difficult to grow, often succumbing to rotting because of too much moisture in the soil. Blooms are also very rare. Plants can go a decade without flowering, making this a particularly rare occasion.
Thorson, a Biological Sciences alumnus, acquired the seedling in 2010 when it was approximately two years old and was the size of a baseball. He named the plant “Laura,” after Laura Kingsford, Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (CNSM), who is a biologist and rabid plant enthusiast.
“She is also a very sweet person and a wonderful dean who is very supportive of the faculty and staff under her administration,” says Thorson. "I just felt, in my heart, that I wanted to pay tribute to her by naming this specimen after her. She was flattered and tickled pink!”
The bloom which now stands about 4-foot tall and is 30-inches in diameter is expected to wilt by the end of the day. Corpse Lily blooms typically only last from 24 to 48 hours.
“If you are fortunate enough to witness ‘Laura’ in bloom, it very well may be once in a lifetime experience,” Thorson says.
But with the impressive bloom comes an exceptionally foul odor. The smell is an evolutionary adaptation to attract carrion beetles to the flower, which are fooled into ‘thinking’ that they’ve discovered a large carcass to feed on. In the process of searching for a meal, they inadvertently serve as a pollinating vehicle, says Thorson. He notes that the smell comes in waves and is milder at some points.
Visitors of ‘Laura’ are a bit difficult as the greenhouse is located on the rooftop of the Hall of Sciences which is accessible only by a small number of faculty and staff. Potential visitors can contact Thorson at Brian.Thorson@csulb.edu.
Thorson has been cultivating a second Corpse Lily in the greenhouse. He says that one could bloom within the next two months.
Written by Sharon Hong, images by Joe Philipson and Michael Sullivan
