Arum Scarem

"I should know because I had an opportunity to get a whiff up close and personal at the University of California in Davis, and it exuded a smell that I will never forget," says master gardener Paul James. "In fact, to give you an idea of just how foul smelling it was, rotting meat comes to mind."

The reason for this flower's peculiar odor is related to the ideal pollinators for this plant--carrion beetles and flesh flies--both of which are abundant on the island of Sumatra. By attracting not one but two insects, the 'corpse flower is able to ensure its survival. And this plant also has thousands of flowers contained within this fleshy central pod, which you can see, thanks to this man-made viewing hole (figure D). But incredibly, or thankfully, the flower lasts only three days, and if it's successfully pollinated, it will produce thousands of cherry-sized fruits. Sumatran birds prize the fruit and deposit the seeds. This sets the groundwork for a forest full of the corpse flowers.