The Stinkiest Flower ‘Green Boy’ Is Ready to Bloom in California — And You Can Watch It Live
California braces itself as the corpse flower named ‘Green Boy’ is preparing to bloom. Scientifically known as Amorphophallus titanum, the rare bloom at the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science has been dubbed with a youthful nickname, per The Huntington. To increase visibility and ensure people get to witness the rare event, the conservatory has opened up the venue for visitors. There will also be a livestream for virtual visitors. This comes months after thousands of people lined up at a greenhouse to see another corpse flower first bloom after 15 years in Australia.
California is set to witness the rarest of blooms
The Huntington Library in San Marino, California, has published an official event for the blooming corpse flower, Green Boy. As it prepares to smother visitors with its putrid stench, the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory has the plant on view for only a limited time. This event is momentous for many reasons than one. The corpse flower, also known as the Titan Arum, produces the largest unbranched inflorescence in the entire plant kingdom and grows more than 12 feet tall at its best. The most intriguing part is that its rare bloom, which occurs every two to three years, only lasts for about 24 hours.
Moreover, the powerful, pungent smell is characteristic of its magnificence and integral to its survival. Hence, the morbid common name, corpse flower, refers to its rotten stench. In other words, the blooming event is not worth missing, and plant enthusiasts are keeping an eye on the viewing dates ongoing from July 14 and close on July 30. @cbssf covered the corpse flower bloom at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate.
The corpse flower captivated Australia
In January 2025, the Royal Sydney Botanic Garden made headlines for a gothic display of the corpse flower with a stench so strong that the staff had to consider keeping vomit bags in store for the visitors. Thankfully, they did not wish to proceed with that measure, noting the fans who flocked to get a glimpse of the momentous bloom and take a whiff of its pungent stink reminiscent of gym socks and garbage, as reported by AP News. The corpse flower that emits the smell of decaying flesh is barely a deterrent for visitors. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Fans have dubbed the plant as Putricia, a combination of the words ‘putrid’ and ‘Patricia’, while referring to themselves as Putricians. @ABCNewsindepth shared glimpses of the popular Putricia in full bloom on YouTube.
People readily waited three hours in line to witness the extraordinary presence of the corpse flower and engage their senses of smell with its instinctual stench reeking of rotting garbage. In the Royal Sydney Botanical Garden, the bloom stood adorned in a gothic display. The garden staff intensified the dramatic display of the bloom with a misting humidifier to establish its iconic presence. According to the garden spokesperson, Sophie Daniel, who designed Putricia’s display, the bloom’s immense popularity stemmed from the fact that it was “such an amazing living being.”
Putricia’s origins
Originally, the plants are found in the Sumatran rainforest in Indonesia and referred to as bunga bangkai. In the wild, it is believed that only 300 of these plants exist, while not more than 1,000 are being cultivated across the globe. The rare blooms only flower every 7 to 10 years in their natural habitat. Hence, the museum felt fortunate to have been graced by the bloom’s presence after waiting for years. “The fact that they open very rarely, so they flower rarely, is obviously something that puts them at a little bit of a disadvantage in the wild,” Daniel explained.
At daytime, the flower gracefully opens around its central tuber as the outer green layer curls up to reveal a burgundy center. Upon its unfurling, the plant’s temperature rose to 37 degrees Celsius, attracting flies and beetles for pollination. This is when the garden staff began the delicate task of hand pollination to ensure its survival. @NatGeo shared an intriguing feature of the corpse flower bloom at the US Botanic Garden.
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