Huge "Corpse" flower in Brussels attracts large crowds

          
The Titan Arum, one of the world's largest, rarest and smelliest flowers, is in blossom for the third time in five years in a Brussels greenhouse in a rare development for a plant that generally goes years without blooming. 

Variously known as a "corpse flower" in Indonesia where first found, or "huge deformed penis" under its scientific name, "Amorphophallus titanum", the strange but enormous specimen began to bloom on Sunday in the national botanical gardens, the Jardin de Meise, located on the outskirts of the Belgian capital.         

The spokesman for the gardens Franck Hidvegi told Agence France Presse that the "flowering process is very brief, three days at the very most. Afterwards it will die and it'll be several years before it blooms again".      

The plant, which looks a little like a giant ear of corn until the red-rimmed flower opens leaving a stench of rotting flesh or fish, stood 244 centimeters (eight feet) high Monday, attracting crowds.        

The Titan Arum flower is an endangered species in its natural habitat of the Sumatra tropical forest, and is generally in flower every four or five years.          

The Meise specimen flowered in 2008 shortly after its arrival from the German city of Bonn, and then again in 2011. "This is exceptional and has never occurred in other botanical gardens," added Hidvegi.