Cincinnati Zoo's corpse flower is almost ready to bloom and, well, stink

A flower at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens is drawing a lot of attention. It's a titan arum and is known for a few things: it's rare, it's large, it only blooms every few years, and it stinks.

Horticulturalist Ed Atkinson says it's more commonly known as the corpse flower. “The titan arum is pollinated by carrion beetles and flies," he says. "In order to attract them, she does her best corpse impression, which involves sending out a cocktail of chemicals you would find in garlic, sweaty feet, limburger cheese...”

Atkinson says the odor is intense, but not long lived.

“It’s a very short window. It’s at max about 24 hours. It kinda ramps up the later we get in the day, through the night, because a lot of its pollinators are nocturnal,” he says. “So the full smell will be very early in the morning on the next day.”

Atkinson says the stench draws pollinators looking for a meal — and people because of morbid curiosity. “We all just wanna see how bad it really is and be able to explain it in our own words.”