A blooming ‘Amorphophallus titanum,’ also known as corpse flower, in Gunung Leuser National Park, North Sumatra Province, Indonesia in January 2025. Ferdy Siregar/Xinhua via Getty Images

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What’s big, rare, and smells like literal death? If you guessed a corpse, you’re not wrong. The pungent flower in question is a tropical plant called titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ), a species of corpse flower. Appropriately, people say it smells like rotting flesh.

The stinky plants are rare and native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Nevertheless, a corpse flower named “Pangy” calls Massachusetts’ Mount Holyoke College home, where it has just bloomed, according to the Associated Press .

“Terrible,” “horrible,” “putrid,” and “rotten” are just some of the one-worded descriptions the blooming has inspired, per a Mount Holyoke College social media video . One person has a more inspired take: “Impressive.…