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'Stinky' the corpse flower is blooming at the Denver Botanic Gardens

Posted at 4:51 PM, Aug 30, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-30 19:03:22-04

DENVER – If you’ve wanted to smell the unique stench of a corpse flower, run and don’t walk to the Denver Botanic Gardens Thursday evening or Friday to smell Stinky as it blooms.

Stinky, the Botanic Gardens’ corpse flower, started blooming Thursday afternoon. The Botanic Gardens will be open during its normal hours Thursday; last entry will be at 8 p.m. Watch a live stream of the bloom in the player below or by clicking here.

But members of the Gardens will be able to get in an hour early Friday, at 8 a.m. to catch the bloom. It will be open regular hours, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday.

The Gardens says it will take 3-4 hours for the flower to fully open and that the first 24 hours of the bloom are the best time to view the flower. After that, it typically closes up. Stinky last bloomed in 2015.

The corpse flower, whose scientific name is Amorphophallus titanium, gets its name because when they bloom, they give off a foul stench that resembles decaying flesh. That scent helps attract flies and beetles that help pollinate the plant, which is native to the rainforests of western Sumatra.

For more information about the 18-year-old flower and to pre-order tickets, click here.