Giant Corpse Flower Finally Blooms In Washington, Peak Smell Expected Monday

The week-long wait anticipating the whiff of a giant flower ended as the foul-smelling flower finally bloomed in Washington, DC.

Known as the "corpse flower," because of its rotting flesh-like smell, the giant flower bloomed on Saturday afternoon, according to the US Botanic Garden, prompting garden officials to extend the visiting hours every night.

US Botanic Garden officials told the Washington Post that the flower will remain open from 24 to 48 hours and the "peak smell" of the corpse flower will occur on Monday before it begins to collapse.

Originally known as the Titan Arum, the flower is native to the tropical forest of Sumatra in Indonesia and was first discovered in 1878. According to scientists, the flower's foul smell is also attracting beetles and other insects that are normally drawn by the smell of rotting flesh.

"Just in the same way that a lovely smelling plant, like a rose, is attracting a bee or another kind of insect with what we would consider a very nice smell, to pollinate it, this particular plant has the strategy of using a horrible, fetid smell to attract insects," said Ari Novy, the public program manager of the US Botanical Garden.

But aside from attracting foul-smell-loving beetles and insects, Novy added that the corpse flower has also been drawing attention from a huge number of visitors, despite the fact that the flower blooms unpredictably. The US Botanic Garden has been taking care of this Titan Arum for almost 10 years.

"Over the last many years, this plant has proven to be the biggest attractor, not only of carrion beetles but of human beings that we've had. It's just got everything for a good mystery. It's cryptic. It's exotic. The timing is off. It's inconsistent. It's inconsiderate. It's got all those great things. It's from far away, and it smells bad, and people get interested," Novy added.

In 2007, the US Botanic Garden witnessed the blooming of another corpse flower. Titan Arums also recently bloomed at facilities in Ohio and in Belgium.