Rare, stinky flower to bloom in Des Moines, Iowa

A rare, beautiful and very stinky flower is about to bloom at the Des Moines Botanical Garden.

It's called the "the corpse flower" -and it's expected to bloom in the next two weeks.   

Experts say the rare flower blooms for just a few hours, and only every five years, and it does NOT smell good.

Derek Carwood of the Botanical Garden spoke with our news partner, Channel 13, WHO-TV about the unusual plant. 

 "This guy (plant) is basically going to be like a dead cow, in the middle of the conservatory, so it's going to reek really, really bad for about 12-to-15 hours or so, then it's going to stop.  Shortly after the whole flower will collapse, " said Carwood.

Carwood says they got the plant several years ago, and just recently it started showing signs of a bloom.


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