What to Know
- The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
- San Marino
- With paid admission
It's the sweet centennial year for The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Library, which means a host of fragrant and fabulous events are on the flowery horizon.
But sometimes our noses lead us not to a centennial but rather a Scentennial, at least if the Scentennial in question happens to be a corpse flower, one of the stinkiest specimens around.
And rarest, too.
True, these pinch-the-nose favorites do pop up, at some of Southern California's most esteemed botanical gardens now and then. And lucky news for those flower buffs that have to see the most unusual growers around: The first corpse flower of The Huntington's grand centennial year is now on display in The Conservatory.
The specimen's name? We already tipped the petals on it earlier: It is Scentennial, a perfect moniker for a celebratory centennial year.
Scentennial isn't yet doing its smelly, open-wide thing, and that appears to be a ways off, per The Huntington's social media.
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It will reach that point, though, as sure as a corpse flower is tall, so best keep an eye on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to see when Scentennial has sprung into odoriferous action. Here's the flower's official page, too.
And when Scentennial does live up to the corpse flower's widely known rep?
Don't dally, for a corpsey's bloom does not last for long. What it lacks in longevity, though, it makes up for in dramatic appearance and foul fragrance.
How to visit this wonder as it grows, grows, grows? Your admission to the San Marino landmark is all that's required, as well as a curiosity about this curiosity of the botanical world.
