{"id":27512,"date":"2024-05-22T21:01:25","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T03:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-rare-corpse-flower-is-expected-to-bloom-and-stink-up-csu-this-weekend\/"},"modified":"2024-05-23T03:01:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T03:01:25","slug":"a-rare-corpse-flower-is-expected-to-bloom-and-stink-up-csu-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-rare-corpse-flower-is-expected-to-bloom-and-stink-up-csu-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"A rare corpse flower is expected to bloom (and stink up) CSU this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tammy
Tammy Brenner, plant growth facility manager, measures \u201cCosmo,\u201d an 8-year-old corpse flower (Amorphophallus Titanum) on May 16. The flower is about to bloom in the Plant Growth Facility Conservatory. (Courtesy of John Eisele\/Colorado State University, via CPR)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A rare flower native to Indonesia is set to fully bloom in Fort Collins for the first time.<\/p>\n

Since 2016, CSU\u2019s College of Agricultural Sciences\u2019 Conservatory has been caring for a \u201ccorpse flower,\u201d the largest inflorescence \u2013 or collection of flowers acting as one \u2013 in the plant kingdom.<\/p>\n

The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates fewer than 1,000 corpse flowers remain in the wild.<\/p>\n

The plant, which CSU calls \u201cCosmo,\u201d remains dormant for most of the year. It only partially blooms once a year, creating a large, stemlike structure before returning to dormancy.<\/p>\n

This year, however, Cosmo is expected to put on a show.<\/p>\n

\u201cCosmo came out of dormancy around three weeks ago, and we didn\u2019t expect anything exciting,\u201d CSU plant growth facilities manager Tammy Brenner said in a statement. \u201cBut then two weeks ago, it started looking a little bit more full, a little bit more plump. It started growing and shooting out stalks, and we realized something really big was about to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

What will it look and smell like?<\/div>\n

Corpse flowers fully bloom only once every several years. When they do, they produce giant red flower buds with a pale stem protruding from the center.<\/p>\n

The entire bloom lasts only a day or two.<\/p>\n

\"Visitors
Visitors crowd around a Titan arum, also known as the \u201ccorpse flower\u201d in expectation of getting a whiff of its characteristic blooming smell of rotting flesh July 22, 2013, at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin\/Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

While the sight is pretty, the smell is what gave the species its name.<\/p>\n

Corpse flowers emit a putrid odor while blooming that has been compared to the smell of decaying flesh. The smell helps the flower attract pollinators like carrion beetles and flies.<\/p>\n

How to see Cosmo bloom<\/div>\n

There\u2019s no precise way to measure when Cosmo\u2019s full bloom will happen, Brenner said, but CSU has set a tentative date of Saturday, May 25.<\/p>\n

The Plant Growth Facility Conservatory will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day the flower is in bloom.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tammy
Tammy Brenner, CSU\u2019s plant growth facility manager, measures Cosmo. (Courtesy of John Eisele\/Colorado State University, via CPR)<\/span>Courtesy of John Eisele\/Colorado State University, via CPR<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Tammy
Tammy Brenner, plant growth facility manager, measures \u201cCosmo,\u201d an 8-year old Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus Titanum) that is about to bloom. (Courtesy of John Eisele\/Colorado State University, via CPR)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get ready to meet Cosmo, the 8-year-old mostly dormant flower<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27512"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}