Corpse Flower Brings Thousands To Washington, First To Bloom Since 2007

Thousands of visitors packed a small area in Washington D.C. to see and not necessarily smell the Corpse flower. This is the first one since 2007 that curators have been able to see bloom.

According to the LA Times, they are mostly found in the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, the titan arum takes years to bloom, but its inflorescence, one of the largest in the world, remains open for only 24 to 48 hours.

The smell is probably how it got its name. The stench is meant to draw beetles and other lowly bugs to it so that it may polinate.  According to Yahoo! The plant mimics the smell of death as part of a clever evolutionary strategy. Flesh-eating pollinators like flies and carrion beetles are attracted to the flower's rotten odor and the warmth it generates. The insects get coated with pollen when they crawl into the plant's spadix and then fly away to cross-pollinate another titan arum in bloom. Hence, the name.

The inside of the flower looks like a body before it opens and when it does it looks like one big flower but is actually many small flowers together.

The gardens were live streaming for everyone to enjoy and finally opened June 22 at 4 pm, it will most likely close June 24th in the evening.

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