Short Line Forms to View the ‘Corpse’

The hopes for drawing vast crowds of onlookers are wilting as fast as the corpse flower at the Cal State Fullerton Arboretum.

Arboretum officials had expected thousands of visitors to line up Wednesday morning, lured by the promise of seeing and smelling the first titan arum to bloom in Orange County.

The huge, rare flower, known for its biennial bloom that lasts only a few days and smells like rotting flesh, drew 12,000 to the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino last August on the first day it bloomed.

In anticipation of a similar crowd, the arboretum in Fullerton stocked souvenir T-shirts, postcards, even emergency water. But fewer than 1,000 people turned out Wednesday for the flower, which began to unfurl its five-foot blossom early Tuesday afternoon.

“I wish we could say they were beating down our doors, but they weren’t,” said Janet Van Diest, an arboretum spokesperson.

As if in shame at its low drawing power, the Fullerton flower began wilting almost as soon as it bloomed. (The real reason is believed to be higher-than-normal heat.)

Leave it to nature to have its way, nursery manager Chris Barnhill said. “You always like things to last longer, like your first date.”

The Huntington’s titan lasted about three days before it began to collapse, but botanists think today will be the Fullerton blossom’s last. By Wednesday afternoon, eight inches of the 58-inch flower had tipped over.

The odor, which is released in bursts, is meant to attract dung beetles for pollination. The flower, which resembles a huge calla lily, is native to Sumatra and has bloomed only 12 times in the United States. It looks like a giant ear of unhusked corn surrounded by a magenta skirt.

The titan exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. for viewing during the bloom. A $5 donation is requested for admission. The arboretum is on the Cal State Fullerton campus. A hotline has been set up for updates: (714) 278-2981.