I love the smell of rotting meat in the morning; it smells like victory. Actually, I don't really care for that scent at any time, and it doesn't smell like victory, it smells like a Voodoo Lily, or "Corpse Flower." And, Nicholas Conservatory and Gardens has three of them waiting for you to come by and take a deep breath.

So, what is a "Corpse Flower?" From Wikipedia:

The species Amorphophallus titanum, 'corpse flower' or titan arum, is the world's largest unbranched inflorescence, with a height of up to 2.5 m and a width of 1.5 m. After an over 4 feet tall flower opened at Chicago Botanical Gardens on September 29, 2015, thousands lined up to see and smell it. The floriculturalist described it smelling "like roadkill, a barnyard, a dirty diaper, very strong, a little bit of mothball smell too". Native to the Indonesian rainforest it takes 10 years to blossom, to die afterwards.

I can see why Nicholas Conservatory would want three of them. Thank goodness their orchid exhibit "In Full Bloom" goes on through this weekend so you can get your nose over to something pleasant after you torture your olfactories with the Voodoo Lily.

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