This Plant Blooms for 3 Days and Smells Like Death—People Are Lining Up to See 'Stink Floyd'

Flower fans are currently flocking to Reiman Gardens, a 17-acre public garden in Ames, Iowa, to see a rare sighting. Affectionally named "Stink Floyd," the botanic garden's corpse flower has bloomed—an event it is calling the "Dark Side of the Bloom," as an homage to the plant's rock star status.

Corpse flowers (Amorphophallus titanum) are a sight to behold because they only bloom for 24 to 36 hours once every two to seven years. The plant can take up to seven years to bloom the first time and won't bloom again for another two to three years. Less than 1,000 corpse flowers exist, and fewer than a dozen bloom annually in the U.S.

The blooming plants are infamous for emitting an awful smell, which is designed to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies. The flower mimics the smell of rotting flesh to trick the insects into visiting and pollinating it. Reiman Gardens described it as "a very pungent sour milk/dead fish scent."

The corpse flower at Reiman Gardens, which is on loan from Iowa State University's Bessey Greenhouse, started blooming Saturday night. Following the news, the gardens immediately became a popular destination, with people traveling from all over the Midwest to see it, waiting in line for up to two hours. Reiman Gardens even extended its hours over the weekend, staying open until 11 p.m.

"Like an aging rock star in leather pants two sizes too small, Stink Floyd's bloom continues to hang on this morning. For how much longer, we don't know. The odor is also still there, slightly--like a musician who has been partying a little too hard for three straight days," Reiman Gardens cheekily posted on its Facebook page this morning about the flower's progress.

As of May 17, the flower measured 78 inches; they can grow up to 10 feet tall. Stink Floyd is 12 years old, and this is its second bloom. It's currently housed in the Hughes Conservatory.