Two corpse flowers are expected to bring the funk at Missouri Botanical Garden

The Missouri Botanical Garden has drawn crowds wanting to revel in the smell of the aptly named corpse flower since it first bloomed there in 2012. The amorphophallus titanum’s offensive odor has been likened to rotting garbage, dirty diapers and, yes … a dead body.

Horticulturist Emily Colletti has cared for the garden's aroid plant collection — which includes the corpse flower as well as the peace lily — for 21 years. Before MoBot got its first handful of tubers, Colletti didn’t know much about the plant. Now she is one of the nation’s most knowledgeable horticulturalists attending to this rare and endangered species.