Como Park's corpse flower is starting to stink — here's how to watch it bloom
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"Horace," the fetid — and feted — corpse flower at Como Park Conservatory in St. Paul has started to stink, its handlers wrote in a social media post just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, a sign that a bloom should come soon.
Since bloom watch started in earnest Sunday, a livestream (below) trained on the corpse flower has attracted sometimes hundreds of people at a time watching for signs that the giant flower would open. Corpse flowers do not bloom on a regular schedule. Instead, they store energy in an underground stem called a corm, blooming only once they have enough energy.
Their blooms tend to begin in the late afternoon, continuing into evening. They derive their name from the foul odor they emit in order to attract pollinators. The stench lasts about 12 hours, and soon the bloom collapses. Corpse flowers are considered endangered and grow only in the wild in Sumatra, where their habitat has been devastated, Horace's primary caregiver, horticulturist Jen Love, told the Star Tribune Sunday.
Horace, one of two corpse flowers at Como, arrived in 2019. Its nickname comes from Horace Cleveland, a landscape architect who designed many Twin Cities green spaces. This is the first time Horace has bloomed, while the other corpse flower has yet to.
Como Conservatory is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
