SAN MARINO — Two titan arums, commonly known as corpse flowers, bloomed simultaneously at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. The rare event drew more than 7,000 visitors on Monday to view the plants named Ordorysseus and Odora.

The Huntington notified the public on Sunday afternoon that the titan arums had begun to bloom, prompting a surge in attendance the following day. Advance tickets for the viewing sold out by late Monday morning as visitors sought to witness the fleeting spectacle. Each titan arum bloom lasts only 24 to 48 hours, and the two plants reached their peak overnight before beginning to close the following day.

Brandon Tam, curator of the Huntington’s orchid collection, described the public response as deeply engaged. "People who lined up for three hours in our line just to see the corpse flowers for just a few minutes," Tam said. He added, "They were enchanted by it." According to Tam, the experience resonated beyond mere curiosity.

"People were curious, people were inspired," he said. He also noted that the plants served as an ambassador for botanical awareness: "People started to fall in love, if they haven’t already been falling in love, with plants because of this poster child of a plant that has led people to better understand that plants have a life of their own."

The titan arum produces a pungent odor resembling rotting flesh to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies for pollination. Despite its nickname, the corpse flower is not a single bloom but a giant flowering structure composed of hundreds of tiny blooms. The plant is native to western Sumatra, Indonesia, and is classified as an endangered species, with fewer than 1,000 individuals believed to remain in the wild. Mature specimens can grow more than 12 feet tall, and after flowering, the plant collapses and enters a dormant period that can last years.

The Huntington has cultivated titan arums for more than 25 years and currently holds more than 43 mature specimens. Many of these originate from a plant successfully pollinated at the institution in 2002. "In 2002, we pollinated a corpse flower, which produced hundreds of fruits and therefore hundreds of seeds that we would propagate," Tam said.

Seedlings from that effort and subsequent propagation have been shared with other botanical gardens across the U.S. to support conservation of the species. Although the blooms have closed, Ordorysseus and Odora will remain on display at the Huntington until early August, allowing visitors to observe the plants in their post-flowering state.

The simultaneous blooming of two titan arums is an uncommon occurrence in cultivation, and the scale of public interest—over 7,000 visitors in a single day—highlights the plant’s role as a catalyst for public engagement with botany and conservation. The Huntington’s long-term cultivation program, dating back more than two decades, has contributed to national efforts to preserve an endangered species that faces near-extinction in its native habitat.

The institution’s 2002 pollination success provided the genetic foundation for much of its current collection and for distributed specimens at other U.S. botanical gardens. This ongoing work underscores how botanical institutions serve not only as display spaces but as active participants in species preservation, especially for plants with limited wild populations and complex reproductive cycles.