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Rare Corpse Flower Blooms At Michigan State University

corpse flower
The corpse flower blooms at MSU. (Credit: W. J. Beal Botanical Garden/Facebook)

EAST LANSING (WWJ/AP) - The smell of death in the air at Michigan State University drew crowds following the blooming of the corpse flower.

The roughly 5-foot tall flower has the formal name Amorphophallus titanum. Its smell is described as like that of a rotting body, or sometimes merely like dirty socks.

Hundreds of people stood in line Tuesday to see the flower at the Plant Biology Conservatory. The bloom only lasts a few days. The plant last bloomed in 2010 and before that in 1995.

Crowds flocked to the conservatory to get a whiff of the flower and take photos with the plant. Julia Jackson told reporters that she stood in line for nearly an hour with her 4-year-old grandson, Parker, who wanted to see what the boy calls the "stinky flower."

See photos and follow the corpse flower's growth on the Beal Botanical Garden Facebook page.

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