Rare "Corpse Flower" Blooms at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

What can get to be 10 feet tall, 3-4 feet wide, smells like a rotting body, and took 13 years to appear? It would be the rare titan arum plant at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo! Better known as the "corpse flower," this unusual bloom will be on display through the end of this week at the zoo.

Cleveland's corpse flower opened up on Monday, July 23, 2007. A native of the Jambi Province in the southern part of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, it was discovered in 1878 by the Italian botanist, Odoardo Beccari. It seldom blooms in its native rainforest, but it's even rarer for it to bloom in captivity. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is joining only 20 other institutions who have had a successful titan arum plant bloom in the United States.

"We've waited so long for this day, and we're really thrilled to have such a rare blooming happen at the Zoo," said Don Krock, a Zoo Horticulturist in a press release. "It's a beautiful sight to see, but the smell is really bad."

The titan arum is the largest flower in the world and can attribute its foul odor to sulfur-based chemicals. Some say it smells like rotten fish, but one thing is for certain...it wreaks. Natives of Sumatra can detect its scent up to fifty yards away. The main reason for its pungent smell is to attract beetles and other insects that feed on carrion. While they are inside of the bloom looking for dead meat, they end up pollinating the foul flowers.

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo became the proud owner of the titan arum plant way back in 1994 from the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. After 13 long years of waiting, the zoo horticulturists began to notice changes that indicated an impending bloom about one-and-a-half weeks ago. Unfortunately, the bloom is only in its full glory for a mere day. Each day, thereafter, its beauty and stench begin to disperse. However, due to its rarity, the zoo has chosen to leave it on display through the end of the week in the rain forest.