Corpse Flower

A foul-smelling, aptly named "corpse flower" at Western Illinois University has bloomed, releasing a powerful aroma of rotting meat.

Gardeners at the university have been meticulously watching the bloom for days, predicting it would open as early as last week.

The flower is a rare example of the Indonesian Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanium) plant. It evolved its horrendous odor to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies, which normally feed on rotting flesh.

This specimen is one of a small group of these flowers that have bloomed in cultivation since the 1880s. The 44.5-inch tall plant lives in the Western Illinois University Botany Greenhouse, tended by greenhouse gardener Jeff Hillyer.

"This Titan has never bloomed before," Hillyer told LiveScience. For the past eight years the plant has been growing vegetatively, only producing a single, umbrella-like leaf, Hillyer explained. The bloom (or inflorescence) of the flower is actually composed of thousands of flowers. The odor gets especially strong as the plant heats up during the blooming process.

"The plant actually gets warmer," Hillyer said. "It kind of cooks the chemicals to pump the odor out there."

Once the flower fully opens, if it is not pollinated it closes up and collapses. The plant began to open on Sunday, and remained open for about half a day, before closing back up.