‘Otherworldly’ and stinky: Corpse flower blooms at Roseville high school

When the Gene Domek Greenhouse at Roseville High School was being built 17 years ago, science teacher and greenhouse manager C. J. Addington wanted to grow something truly unusual.

After finding a Titan Arum seed for sale online, Addington made a spur of the moment decision and bought it. To his surprise, it actually grew, despite the rarity of the plant’s bloom.

The one-of-a-kind nature spectacle of the blooming of a Titan Arum, also known as a “corpse flower,” began on Thursday night.

The flower is known for its “otherworldly appearance,” immense size and terrible stench, “reminiscent of hot garbage mixed with sewage and a rotting corpse,” according to Addington.

The corpse bloom lasts only a day, and this will be the third time the school has attempted to get a bloom. The first was July of 2011, when Roseville became the first public high school in the world to successfully bring a Titan Arum, Amorphophallus titanum, to bloom. The flower, named Tiger after the school’s mascot, reached 3-feet-1-inch in height, which is small for the plant.

Still, school officials were proud.

“Usually they’re only flowered at botanical gardens and universities, places with staff and money and facilities, and we’re just a little urban high school,” Addington said.

In 2017, a second bloom was attempted, with another corpse flower, named Corona after the year’s total solar eclipse, standing over 6 feet tall. However, the plant never reached full bloom due to disruption by an intense security light over the greenhouse. Pollen from the plant was procured after a manual opening.

Thing Two, as this year’s corpse flower is named, is a clone of Tiger, the original bloom at the school. The bloom was measured at 6 feet, 6½ inches on Thursday, proving to be the school’s biggest bloom yet.

The plan now is for Thing Two to be pollinated with the pollen from Corona, creating a new batch of corpse flowers to grow in the future.

Thing Two, which was grown from a 43-pound bulb, required nine years of constant care, annual re-potting and meticulous fertilizing and watering. Even with all the care, a bloom was not guaranteed.

Like all living things, corpse flowers are unpredictable, making the bloom difficult to predict.

“They do what they want to do,” Addington said.

The bloom opened on Thursday night and stayed open throughout the night, beginning to close on Friday. Due to the short duration of the bloom, seeing the corpse flower while open is incredibly rare. While the plant can reflower, years can pass between blooms.

Those who wished to be notified when the flower opens received a message sent by text alert to over 400 people and an email to all 2,000 students at the school. The teacher was prepared to welcome hundreds to the greenhouse.

During the flower’s bloom, the greenhouse will be open to the public for tours all day Friday, with better viewings earlier in the day. Visitors can reach the greenhouse by entering the school’s campus from Campo Street between the gym and pool. All visitors must wear masks, socially distance from other groups and be with no more than five others. The greenhouse will be ventilated and have a one-way flow of traffic.

Addington also has a livestream set up of the flower, allowing people to watch its progress toward flowering.

This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 5:00 AM.