Rare corpse flower in bloom at Smith College, but not for long

A group gathers to look at the blooming corpse flower at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College Friday morning.

A group gathers to look at the blooming corpse flower at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College Friday morning. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

The corpse flower just beginning to bloom Friday morning at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College.

The corpse flower just beginning to bloom Friday morning at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Emily Osmun and Todd Perry talk about the corpse flower at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College which had just started to bloom Friday morning.

Emily Osmun and Todd Perry talk about the corpse flower at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College which had just started to bloom Friday morning. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Emily Osmun, Rob Donovan, Chloe Donovan, 10, and Mel Donovan look at the blooming corpse flower at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College.

Emily Osmun, Rob Donovan, Chloe Donovan, 10, and Mel Donovan look at the blooming corpse flower at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Jimmy Grogan, the conservatory curator at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College, talks about the corpse flower which had just started to bloom Friday morning. The flower, which is blooming for the first time in three years but can often take seven to 10 years to bloom fully, is a large plant famous for a distinctive odor. The bloom is likely to last for a couple days, for visitors who want to see it, Smith officials said. 

Jimmy Grogan, the conservatory curator at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College, talks about the corpse flower which had just started to bloom Friday morning. The flower, which is blooming for the first time in three years but can often take seven to 10 years to bloom fully, is a large plant famous for a distinctive odor. The bloom is likely to last for a couple days, for visitors who want to see it, Smith officials said.  STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Sarah Falkenstine and Erin Tighe talk about the blooming corpse flower at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College. “We live down the street and dropped everything to come, I’ve been monitoring the situation,” said Tighe about waiting for the news the flower was in bloom.

Sarah Falkenstine and Erin Tighe talk about the blooming corpse flower at the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College. “We live down the street and dropped everything to come, I’ve been monitoring the situation,” said Tighe about waiting for the news the flower was in bloom. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

By CAROLYN BROWN

Staff Writer

Published: 06-20-2025 2:38 PM

Modified: 06-20-2025 4:14 PM

NORTHAMPTON — The Smith College Botanic Garden is celebrating a rare and short-lived event: its corpse flower is blooming — but only for the weekend, most likely.

The corpse flower (Titan arum) is a large plant famous for a distinctive odor. The Botanic Garden has had corpse flowers in its collection since 2003, but this is the first time one has bloomed there in three years. That in itself is not usual — corpse flowers can take seven to 10 years to bloom fully.

Conservatory Curator Jimmy Grogan said that corpse flowers are difficult to grow to a flowering stage because they need more tropical conditions than the Botanic Garden can offer year-round. The flowers are native to Sumatra, an Indonesian island. He speculated that the flower had started to open because Thursday had been very hot after a string of overcast days.

Grogan said the last time that specific plant flowered was in 2022, but it “had kind of a difficult time of it. I think it was because the weather wasn’t great for it. It was a little bit overcast, and it wanted that hot, hot sunny day.”

When Botanic Garden visitors Erin Tighe and Sarah Falkenstine, who live near the college, found out from social media that the flower was in bloom, they “literally dropped everything and booked it here so we could see it,” Tighe said.

Even though the flower wasn’t in full bloom yet at the time, Tighe was impressed that it was “so beautiful” and “so huge.” Falkenstine agreed: “It’s way bigger than I thought it would be — very beautiful.”

“It’s very exciting,” Tighe said. “It lives up to the hype.”

The Gazette visited the corpse flower around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, and the flower was only partly open. The scent wasn’t overly obvious yet, but Grogan said that once the flower was fully in bloom later that day, the smell would be potent.

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Still, he emphasized that the exact timeline and lifespan of its bloom would be unpredictable, so interested visitors should check it out sooner than later, with a caveat: “Only if you want to really smell it. It will be very rank.”

The Botanic Garden is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Admission is free. For those not able to visit the corpse flower in person, the college will post a timelapse of the flower’s bloom on its social media in the coming days.

Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.