Corpse Flower Blooms Without Warning in Chicago

Alice the corpse flower bloomed at the Chicago Botanic Garden, according to reports from CNN. It is a very rare phenomenon, as the corpse flower blooms only once in several years, sometimes even a decade, with no predictable blooming schedule per se. The rarity factor of this unique phenomena drew crowds of plant lovers and curious visitors to the Chicago Botanic Garden to witness the wondrous bloom. Once the corpse flower also known as Titan Arum or Amorphophallus Titanium botanically, is in full bloom, it stays that way for just around 24 to 36 hours.

The Titan Arum flower gathers its name from the pungent stench it emanates as soon as it blooms, the odor is apparently similar to that of rotting flesh, such as that of a corpse. This rare and exotic plant generally stands pretty tall and measures around 6 to 8 feet in height. The Chicago Botanic Garden has 8 corpse flowers and one which was nicknamed Alice, is the one that arbitrarily bloomed. Alice measured around 4 and a half foot as per reports on Fox News.

Further, according to Reuters, certain visitors who had thronged to see the bloomed titan arum claimed that the stink seemed to have dissipated over the day. "It wasn't as smelly as we thought," said Hanam Tran, a 30-year-old administrator who stood in line for almost an hour with his mother and another relative to see the rare bloom.

The exceptionally rare event can be witnessed on YouTube. A video was uploaded by the Chicago Botanic Garden. You may watch it here.