Blooming 'Corpse Flower' Stinks Up Museum

MILWAUKEE -- A 7-foot tall flower is stinking up the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the plant attracted a crowd despite its scent.

Commonly known as a carrion flower or a "corpse flower," the plant started blooming at the museum over the weekend. The corpse flower has a smell that has been compared to baby diapers or rotting flesh, reported Milwaukee news station WISN.

Botanists said the corpse flower emits the smell of rotting meat to attract insects in the jungles of Sumatra. The deep-red flower also takes on the look of a piece of meat. While blooming, the flower warms up to complete -- in a bug's eye -- the illusion of a carcass.

The smell won't last long; botanists say the large leaf-like flower will soon drop form the plant and it will return to a dormant state for about four months.