How to keep a corpse alive: Tips from Colorado State’s rare flower caretaker (2024)

You could say Tammy Brenner’s job at Colorado State University is a bit ironic.

Over the last seven years, part of her job as the plant growth facilities manager is keeping a corpse flower from dying.

The rare endangered flower, named Cosmo, is set to bloom for the first time in its life around Memorial Day and when it does, the plant will emit a rancid smell not much different from rotting flesh.

“One accidental time I left some chicken in the backseat of my car and I forgot about it. I’m imagining it’s going to smell like that in a few days,” Brenner said.

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Still, Brenner plans to visit the greenhouse several times a day, which is conveniently located across the hall from her office, and sniff the plant to better understand when it will be in full bloom. Cosmo doesn’t have a stench just yet, but will start to smell about 12 hours before its frilly leaves begin to pull away from the tall purple spadix, or spike in the middle, Brenner said.

The odor will likely fill the entire greenhouse and linger, becoming less pronounced after the first 12 to 24 hours. The bloom will only last for about two to three days and the public is invited to visit, she said.

One accidental time I left some chicken in the backseat of my car and I forgot about it. I’m imagining it’s going to smell like that in a few days.

— Tammy Brener, plant growth facility manager

“I think it’s very exciting to know that the corpse flower made (the smell) very intentional to attract pollinators,” Brenner said. “It’s not just because there’s a horrible smell — it’s a perfect case of mimicry in the plant world: I want to smell like something attractive to a pollinator.”

Corpse flowers, or Amorphophallus titanum, are native to Sumatra, Indonesia, and scientists estimate there are fewer than 1,000 specimens in the wild, according to the U.S. Botanic Garden. They can grow up to 15 feet tall when flowering.

Brenner got Cosmo during a plant swap during a conference at Cornell University in 2016, carried it on her lap on an airplane to Fort Collins, and ever since, has been taking care of the plant inside CSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences’ Conservatory, along with a group of staff and volunteers.

“Cosmo was about maybe about a year old, so he was a small plant at the time,” Brenner said. “We did have two, but one died, so we only have Cosmo left. We potted them up and we just began to take care of them from there.”

Up until about two weeks ago, Cosmo was dormant and duties as the plant’s caretaker were pretty simple.

“We really don’t do anything when he’s in dormancy. You just kind of shove him in the back because he doesn’t want to be bothered,” Brenner said.

Then, staff saw the plant’s structure change and Cosmo started to look more plump. He started to grow about 4 to 5 inches a day before slowing down Tuesday, when it grew only an inch and a half.

Now, every day around 10:30 in the morning, Brenner measures Cosmo to see how much it has grown in the last 24 hours. In the next few days, Brenner expects Cosmo’s purple petal structure to open up.

When it came out of dormancy, Brenner and staff made sure the plant got plenty of water, full sun and temperatures between 75 to 80 degrees during the day and around 65 at night. Corpse flowers thrive in tropical environments with 30% to 40% humidity levels.

“Up until now he’s been a pretty easy tenant in my greenhouse,” she said.

Cosmo gets between 14 to 15 hours of daylight per day and doesn’t like to be interrupted by light during the night, which can sometimes stop them from blooming, Brenner said. Thankfully, the lightbulbs near the greenhouse have been out and staff hasn’t replaced them yet.

Corpse flowers start to bloom after the plant’s bulb collects enough energy in the corm, or underground stem that stores nutrients, to push up into a flower, Brenner said.

The core of a corpse flower can reach 90 degrees from its stored energy, Brenner said, and staff will conduct infrared images of Cosmo to see how hot it gets. The plant’s internal temperature also helps the stench to travel further and attract pollinators, like carrion beetles and flesh flies.

Where you can see, and smell, Cosmo

It’s not certain exactly when Cosmo will bloom, but Brenner said all signs point to sometime around Memorial Day. Visitors are welcome to visit the plant and catch a whiff between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day the flower is in bloom at the Plant Growth Facility Conservatory at 1241 Libbie Coy Way in Fort Collins.

Parking is available in the South College Avenue Garage at 121 W. Pitkin St.

Those who can’t travel to Fort Collins can watch the bloom on CSU’s livestream from inside the greenhouse.

After Cosmo flowers, its next bloom is unpredictable. Some corpse flowers bloom several years in a row, Brenner said, while others bloom once every 10 years. The rare stinky plant can live up to 20 years.

Other corpse flower blooms in Colorado have attracted large crowds in the past, like at Denver Botanic Gardens, which attracted 12,000 visitors on bloom day in 2015 and more than 55,000 visitors across the 14-day bloom anticipation cycle, spokesperson Erin Bird said.

The Gardens have two plants that have bloomed, most recently in 2022, and don’t anticipate another bloom for a couple of years, Bird said, adding that 5 to 8 years typically elapse between blooms.

The 2015 bloom received national and international news coverage and the longest wait time to see the flower was five hours, she said.