A Rare Corpse Flower Bloom is Happening Close to Connecticut

You may have heard that there is a rare plant that smells like a rotting corpse as it blooms? One opened in Connecticut last year, and another is just about to open up not too far away.

Just over a year ago in June 2024, a rare double stemmed Titan arum - amorphophallus titanium, or, as us regular folks know it -  'Corpse Flower', bloomed at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic. Nearby at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, they also have a few that attract the curious to smell the stink. Corpse flowers are extremely shy, requiring 5 to 10 years of growth before blooming for the first time, and when they do? The smell has been described as everything from 'Hot garbage', a overpacked septic tank, and death.

As the single massive flower blooms, it releases this powerful odor to attract pollinating insects that feed on dead animals. This odor can be smelled up to a half-mile away, as the plant warms up to mimic a fresh kill to attract the bugs. It's fascinating, and us humans have been even more attracted to this native plant of Sumatra in little old Connecticut.

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Unfortunately this latest bloom isn't happening at UConn or Eastern, it's happening right off of I-91 in Northampton,, Massachusetts at Smith College's Lyman Conservatory inside their Botanical Garden. Today is Friday, June 13, 2025, and the bloom is predicted to happen in the next week or so. The flower only stinks up the place for a few days, and it's over until the next massive flower bloom.