It's a Corpse Flower - or amorphophallus titanum - or titan arum (not to be confused with Rafflesia arnoldii, or the Corpse Lily, which I'd like to see, too ...). I'll probably miss her when she bursts into twenty-four hours of smelly bloom, but I might prefer her in this beautiful curled but unfurling state. She's in the big glasshouse at the Huntington - and I was so happy that, by chance, I was at the Library today. I've always wanted to see (and smell?) one of these notorious plants, which, quite apart from their other attributes, grow a couple of inches in height a day - her height chart, chronicling all her little growth spurts over the last couple of weeks, stands to one side.
(Not visible here are her fan club, the cameras, the cords and lighting, and all the tech apparatus that's waiting for her moment of odiferous glory - Photoshop is my friend when it comes to dramatizing her ...).
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