Video Of Flower That Smells Like 'Decaying Flesh'

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I’ve never smelled a flower that was anything but floral. Then again, I’ve never smelled an Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the “Corpse Flower.”

If you’re wondering about the nickname, let me spell it out for you: This flower smells like decaying flesh.

Right now Hawaii’s Hilo’s Pana­‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens has one on loan from an anonymous donor. The flower, which only blooms for 48 hours once in a decade, has drawn a huge crowd at the gardens and emits a “malodorous smell of decaying flesh.”

“People were waiting for me in the parking lot when I opened the gate,” the complex manager Pam Mizuno said of the weekend crowd. “That usually doesn’t happen… And they’re still coming in.”



The 9-year-old corpse flower arrived on April 12 and stood at 47 inches high. Over the weekend, however, the flower had grown to 87 inches tall and had begun to stink of, well, rotting meat.

In its native homeland of Indonesia, the flower emits the smell to attract carrion beetles because, you know, those little guys just love them some rotting flesh! In the process those beetles then pollinate the flowers, effectively ensuring that disgusting smelling flowers will thrive forevermore.

The plant will be returned to its owner later this week, and as not everyone lives in Hawaii we’ve got a great time lapse video of the flower blooming for you below!

Via Star Advertiser