A rare corpse flower is blooming for the first time in its 17 years, and you can see -- and smell -- it within the next 24 to 48 hours.

The massive flower is housed at Washington State University’s Vancouver campus, and it’s believed to be the first public corpse flower bloom event in the Portland/Vancouver area.

When it blooms, the flower begins to stink -- a scent that has been compared to smelly socks, a rotting carcass or worse. Dung beetles, flesh flies and other carnivorous insects that eat dead flesh are attracted to the odor in the plant’s native Sumatra. And so are scientists and people curious about one of the world’s largest, rarest and weirdest flowering structures.

The plant, nicknamed Titan Vancoug, was raised from a seed by Steve Sylvester, an associate professor of molecular biosciences at the research university.

“I came to Vancouver in 1996 when this campus was first in place,” Sylvester said. “Not many people knew about us, so I wanted a way to bring a lot of people to campus."

Seventeen years ago, he read about a corpse flower bloom that occurred in Madison, Wisconsin and wrote to request a seed. He planted what would become a very long term marketing plan for his university. The payoff will be this week. He’s hoping thousands of people will come out for the smell of a lifetime.

IF YOU GO:

Titan Vancoug is located outside the greenhouse at the east end of the Science and Engineering Building at WSU Vancouver, 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave. Follow the signs and, presumably, the line of people. The plant is open for public viewing from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and, if it continues, Wednesday. (If you drive, bring quarters because the parking meters outside the science building don’t take credit cards.)

You can also see the plant any time via the livestream (embedded below) at https://www.youtube.com/wsuvancouver.

-- Janet Eastman contributed to this story