The corpse flower has bloomed, attracting thousands of people to the U.S. Botanic Garden on Monday to smell the worst odor of rotting flesh one can imagine.
More than 20,000 visitors wanted to "catch a whiff" of the corpse flower, also known as titan arum, before the short-lived blow ends, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The 8-foot-tall flower is found in the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and it reportedly takes years to bloom, but only remains open for 24 to 48 hours. The scent of the corpse flowers attracts carrion beetles and other insects for pollination.
"We don't have the tropical beetle species that would be present in Sumatra," Dr. Ari Novy, the Botanic Garden's public programs manager, told the Huffington Post.
Though the U.S. Botanic Garden has seen 14 corpse flowers, the LA Times reports this titus arnum is the first to bloom since 2007.
The public was highly anticipating the smelly plant to finally bloom Sunday evening. According to multiple reports, more than 400,000 viewers watched live via webcam to watch the occurrence.
Bill McLaughlin, the garden's curator of plants, saw the flower bloom and described the smell to the LA Times as smelling sweet at first, but quickly "began descending from the roof, like a pile of dead animals."
McLaughlin cannot comprehend why so many visitors come to see the corpse flower.
"It's hilarious that all these people are here to smell something awful," McLaughlin told the LA Times.
Osk Honeycutt of Manassas, Va. Visited the flower with her daughter and husband. She told HuffPost she was disappointed, as it "doesn't smell as bad as I'd hoped."
"I've been cheated," Alexander Walker, also from Northern Virginia, told the HuffPost. "I smell people, I don't smell plant."
Catch the stinky flower spectacle in the time-lapse video below.
