Although it’s not technically a flower, it produces the biggest bloom of any plant.
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The Sumatran plant, officially called Amorphophallus titanum or titan arum, started to open around 8 p.m. Saturday July 25, according to the UC Botanical Garden’s Facebook page. By the end of Sunday it will have run its course.
Titan arum are are nicknamed corpse flowers because they emit a smell like a decaying object as they are blooming.
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A garden official described the odor as “like mega dirty socks wrapped around a rotting steak” to TV Station ABC 7. Only “infrequent blasts of odor were experienced” soon thereafter, it said. The garden wrote on Twitter that the plant would only be smelly on Sunday and would begin to go limp Monday. Goodrich said the garden has had its busiest day today in 12 years, with easily more than 1,000 visitors. The garden was open until 7 p.m. Sunday, with the last entry at 6:30 p.m. But Goodrich said there was little parking in the area. Additional parking, with free shuttle service, will be available at the Lawrence Hall of Science lot on Centennial Drive.
