Once a corpse flower blooms, it only stays open for 48 to 72 hours, according to the U.S. Botanic Garden, but “The Beast” is expected to be open for one or two days. The smell is only present in the first 12 to 24 hours when female flowers are attracting pollinators.
Corpse flowers are native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and can live up to 40 years. They are the largest unbranched inflorescence flowers, reaching heights up to 8 feet tall — 12 feet tall in their natural habitat. The blooming cycle is often unpredictable because the flower only blooms when it has enough energy stored. It can either take a few years to bloom after it was planted or as long as a decade.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the corpse flower as endangered because there are fewer than 1,000 mature individual flowers left in the wild.
