By Rob South, WKAR News
East Lansing, MI – A rare plant in Michigan State University's botanical collection is flowering. The Arum Titan has one of the largest flowers in the world. It's also called the corpse flower. Mike Grillo is a PhD student at MSU. He says it's pollinated by carrion-eating flies and beetles.
"It's got this darkish-red, burgundy color which resembles a rotting mammal. It also gives off a repugnant, rotting smell."
Grillo says the corpse flower started blooming last week and will likely be done Tuesday. He says only a handful Arum Titan's flower in any given year. The Sumatran native flower has been in MSU's collection for more than a decade and has never flowered before.