Chicago Botanic Garden’s biggest corpse flower ever blooms

Something is rotten in the state of Illinois.

Just as the spring weather finally blooms in Chicago, so is the corpse flower (or titan arum) at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Spike 2.0 bloomed about 5 p.m. Wednesday. At nearly 7 feet tall, it’s the biggest corpse flower ever at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

But the scent is not what you typically expect of a flower: the corpse flower gets its name because it smells like rotting meat or flesh.

If you want to see the corpse flower in bloom, you should hurry — it only stays in bloom between 24 and 36 hours.

The corpse flower is native to the rainforests of Indonesia.

“When in bloom, it is known for its size, stench, and beauty—look for the deep crimson color of the frilly spathe, or modified leaf, around the tall central spike,” according to the Chicago Botanic Garden’s website.

Spike first began its bloom cycle in the summer of 2015 and more than 75,000 people visited the garden to see it. But the plant got stuck in pre-bloom mode and never, well, spiked.

The corpse flower is in the garden’s Semitropical Greenhouse and viewing hours are until 7 p.m. Thursday.