A titan arum named Scarlet opened Wednesday evening at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Its bloom lasts roughly 48 hours — meaning tonight is the cutoff.

A corpse flower named Scarlet opened at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park on Wednesday evening, June 25, and the clock is almost up. These blooms last roughly 48 hours, which puts the window closing somewhere around Friday evening — tonight.

The Conservatory is at 100 John F. Kennedy Dr., inside Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The Gardens of Golden Gate Park held sold-out after-hours viewing sessions on Thursday and Friday nights at $25 a ticket; those are past. Daytime viewing on Saturday is the remaining option, with standard Conservatory admission — check current pricing and availability at gggp.org before heading out, as the site is the only confirmed real-time source for today's hours and tickets.

The attraction here is exactly what it sounds like: a plant that can grow to five or six feet tall and smells, at peak bloom, somewhere between a rotting carcass and sweaty gym socks. Amorphophallus titanum is native to Sumatra, blooms unpredictably (many cultivated specimens go a decade or more between blooms), and draws genuine crowds every time it opens somewhere in North America. The Academy of Sciences had its own first-ever bloom not long ago. The Conservatory's version drew enough people that the venue stayed open late multiple nights running.

The inside tip: go in the afternoon, when the odor is typically strongest, and expect a line. Take the N-Judah or the 44 O'Shaughnessy toward the park — parking around the Conservatory Drive entrance gets messy on a Saturday.

If you only have an hour and the bloom is still open, this is worth it. Corpse flowers are not a regular thing.