Rare corpse flower blooms at Cal Poly. But you’ll have to hurry to smell it
With a stench reminiscent of rotting flesh and a bloom that’s over 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide, the corpse flower is seemingly straight out of Jurassic Park.
It drew visitors from across San Luis Obispo County to the Cal Poly Plant Conservatory on Thursday, with everyone eager for the chance to catch a whiff of the rare flower.
The corpse flower bloomed around 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon and will only be in full bloom for around 24 hours.
The conservatory, located at the corner of Village Drive and Poly Canyon Road, is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday for those hoping to catch a whiff of the flower.
The tall yellow spadix standing in the center of the flower and the purple leaf-like structures will wilt over the next week, conservatory curator Gage Willey said.
Corpse flowers are notorious for their infrequent, years-long gap between blooms and eye-watering stench. The flower is at home in tropical climates, generating its own heat of over 90 degrees to attract flies and beetles for pollination.
Dubbed “Sneaky,” this corpse flower was tucked away behind a few other plants since it was planted last year. Willey was watering the plants one day and was shocked to see that “Sneaky” was 3-1/2 feet tall.
Although Willey did not find the smell to be as bad as previous blooms, some visitors were taken aback.
“As soon as I walked in here today, I was like, ‘ Wow, there’s the smell,’” said Steve Akers, who works in the Cal Poly Landscaping Department.
When the corpse flower last bloomed at Cal Poly in 2020, around 3,000 people came to see it. The university has had two other blooms since then, but they were not open for public viewing.
A steady trickle of visitors turned out to see — and smell — this bloom over two days, Willey said.
One Cal Poly student — Rachel Abate — saw an Instagram post about the flower. She knew she could not miss the bloom since it only happens every so often, Abate said.
Cal Poly has a few corpse flowers in its collection.
“They’re easier to get access to than in the past,” Willey said. “People seem to be growing them more regularly, and it is easier to get seed.”
Many times the seeds are shared through other botanical gardens and horticulture departments or plant-sharing programs with other schools. The one that bloomed this week came from the flower that bloomed in 2021. That plant began to rot and divided into three seeds.
Corpse flowers do not die after they bloom, but instead store energy to grow. The one that bloomed was around 30 pounds when it was planted, but they can grow up to 50, Willey said. Willey would love to see the flower grow even larger.
“You can’t push the process,” Willey said.
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 2:47 PM.