Rare Corpse Flower in US Capitol Isn't the Only Stinky Bloom in the World

A rare flower has finally bloomed in the U.S. Capitol at the U.S. Botanic Garden. With its massive, red-brown petals, this plant isn't known for its beauty. Instead, it's known for its stench, which smells a bit like a rotting corpse. But this isn't the only plant that uses a repulsive smell. There are several other species that use bad odor.

Known as Titan arum, this giant rainforest plant has been nicknamed the "corpse flower" for a good reason. Its scent attracts flies and beetles as pollinators, which means that the plant mimics the smell of decay when it first blooms--a technique that's also used by other smelly plants.

"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 could 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 programs manager at the U.S. Botanic Garden in an interview with The Washington Post. "So this plant is essentially tricking those kinds of insects into coming, having a party inside of the plant and the flower and pollinating it and then moving on."

Only remaining open for 24 to 48 hours, this bloom is a rare event. The last flower blossomed in 2007 and corpse flowers can go for years without producing a bloom.

So what other plants employ the same malodorous technique as the corpse flower? Looking a bit like an upside down starfish, the African Stapelia gigantea is one of them. Fringed with silky hairs and a wrinkly texture, these flowers have both the appearance and smell of rotting flesh. Unsurprisingly, it's earned the name of the "carrion plant." In addition to this species of plant, there's also the voodoo lily, also known as the stink lily. With its red-purple spathe and spadix, this plant smells like rotting meat which is, perhaps, not as bad as a rotting corpse. Even so, it still raises quite the stink and has invaded parts of the United States, though it's native to Greece. 

Then there's another corpse flower, known as Rafflesia arnoldii. Looking more like something out of a sci-fi movie, this species is known for its massive size. It can stretch as much as three feet across and weigh as much as 24 pounds. With a scent like rot, it's not surprising that these flowers are left primarily undisturbed.

So why smell so badly? These plants evolved to take advantage of the insects attracted to rotting or decaying flesh. While other plants specialized in luring insects that prefer sweet-smelling scents, these flowers took the opposite approach.

Currently, the corpse flower blooming in the Botanic Garden is due to collapse on itself in only a matter of days. You can check out the actual blooming event blow, courtesy of YouTube.