INDIANAPOLIS – It’s usually the color or shape of a flower that captures its beauty, but the smell and transformation of the rare “corpse flower” at the Indianapolis Zoo keeps visitors hooked all week long.
Formally known as the Voodoo Lily, the plant only blooms once a year and gives off a rotten flesh scent. The Indy Zoo’s plant began blooming this week and staff said death-like smell attracts flies for pollination.
Corpse flowers are large plants that can require 8-to-20 years of growth before blooming for the first time.
In July 2016, after more than 10 years, IU’s corpse flower – nicknamed Wally - bloomed for the first time.
