This Week’s Top Stories About Flower: The Corpse Flower has finally started blooming on the campus of Washington State University! The plant is aptly named, due to its signature stench. It began its bloom this week, and the university posted video of it opening. Originally planned in 2002 by Steve Sylvester, the corpse flower is a hybrid of two species of arum, one of which is called the Titan arum.
While “corpse flowers” aren’t typically seen, they’re in full bloom in greenhouses across the country. These rare species, also known as titan arum, take seven to 10 years to mature and only bloom once every three or five years. They bloom in June and April.