Rare corpse flower Scarlet blooms at San Francisco Conservatory

Scarlet opened Wednesday evening at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park and quickly turned the plant house into a short-lived city event. The Conservatory stayed open late, tickets sold out, and visitors had only about 48 hours to see and smell the bloom before it faded.

The plant behind the spectacle is Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower or titan arum. The U.S. Botanic Garden says it can grow to about 9 feet tall and produces one of the largest unbranched inflorescences in the plant kingdom, but it blooms for only 2 to 3 days, usually after long gaps between flowerings. Its strong odor, which mimics decaying flesh to attract carrion insects such as beetles and flies, is part of the plant’s pollination strategy.

That combination of rarity and smell has made Scarlet a familiar draw in San Francisco. The flower bloomed again in July 2023 after a previous bloom in 2018, and the Conservatory has treated corpse-flower appearances as programmed public moments rather than ordinary exhibit changes. In 2018, it kept extended viewing hours until 10 p.m., and Director Matthew Stephens used the occasion to explain the plant to visitors.

The backstory stretches further. ABC7 reported in 2017 that the Conservatory’s corpse flower, then called Terra the Titan, had last flowered in 2005. That long interval fits the species’ slow rhythm, with blooms that can appear only every two to three years and then vanish after a couple of days.

Scarlet’s attraction also carries a conservation edge. The International Union for Conservation of Nature says the species has declined by more than 50% over the past 90 to 150 years because of habitat loss and collection pressure. That makes the crowds in Golden Gate Park part of a larger story: a rare plant, a narrow viewing window, and a public institution that can turn a fleeting bloom into a shared San Francisco moment.