The corpse flower is either going to open tonight — or the Houston Museum of Natural Science staff is going to win a marketing award.

Calling an audible worthy of Peyton Manning, HMNS abruptly scraped tonight's planned midnight closure to go back to being open 24-7 because of the corpse flower's "observed progress." Stop us if you've heard this before ...

All jokes asides on that already infamously fickle Lois, the corpse flower that's holding Houston both enthralled and hostage has opened its spathe at least another three inches on the right side, according to HMNS officials and CultureMap's reporter on the scene, Rachel Hanley, says that the difference is noticeable to the non-hortculturist's eye even if the smell is not (at least from the flower). You can see farther into the plant than ever before and bright purple and reds have been observed.

To its credit, HMNS is urging caution publicly (you don't want to create a corpse flower panic!), noting that Lois did open some last night, only to close again before the morning rather than continuing on a path to full bloom. Still, the HMNS staff is clearly excitedly hopeful, with its public relations crew already committing to staying the whole night in the wake of this new progress.

Maybe, horticulturist hunk Zac Stayton knew what he was doing when he took the night shift today.

Right now, the crowds are still light as people seem to be waiting to make sure it's not another fakeout from the corpse flower.