Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)

Crowds lined up at the California Academy of Sciences, a research institution and museum in the United States, last month. They hoped to see a rare and special flower that opens only once every several years. It also smells terrible.

The Amorphophallus titanum is also known as the corpse flower. It blooms for one to three days every seven to 10 years. During the bloom, it releases a powerful smell described by some as rotting food or sweaty socks.

“It [imitates] the smell of a dead [body] to get flies to come and interact with it. Then they pick up pollen and take it to another flower,” said Lauren Greig, a plant researcher at the institution.

It was the first bloom for the corpse flower named Mirage. The flower was donated to the museum in 2017. It has been housed in its rainforest exhibit since 2020.

The Amorphophallus titanum is native to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In fact, less than 1,000 plants remain in the wild.

The corpse flower is one of several types of flowers that smell like rotting meat to attract pollinators such as flies (see graphic).