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Rare corpse flower blooms at Tucson Botanical Gardens

Posted at 6:22 AM, Apr 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-25 05:53:10-04

TUCSON, Az. – Visitors are flocking to the Tucson Botanical Gardens to catch a glimpse of what is likely the country’s most famous plant right now.

The botanical gardens is home to one of the world’s largest and rarest flowers — the Amorphophallus Titanum, commonly known as the corpse flower. Or, as they call her in Tucson, Rosie.

The corpse flower only blooms once every seven to 10 years and Rosie has finally opened up!

More than 160,000 people have been watching a live stream of Rosie for several days, waiting for it to happen and the botanical gardens had a steady stream of visitors waiting to see the flower in person.

The corpse flower is also known for producing a horrible smell described as rotting flesh. However, experts believe Rosie may be too young to produce the smell.

Only about 100 corpse flowers in captivity have ever bloomed.

Staff at the botanical gardens say Rosie will definitely still be open on Tuesday and maybe even into Wednesday.