P.U. at UW: School's flower opens to rancid stink

[June 10, 2011]  SEATTLE (AP) -- After nearly three years, the bloom of a rare flower at a Washington university finally came up, but it didn't smell like roses.

The University of Washington Biology department says its so-called corpse flower opened after midnight and unleashed its stink of rotting meat on the hundreds waiting.

The Indonesian flower attracts pollinating insects by smelling like carrion when it blooms. The department says on its Facebook page that about 550 people visited its botany greenhouse Wednesday night in waves of nausea.

Greenhouse manager Doug Ewing and his associates coaxed the flower into bloom after nearly three years of dormancy.

[Associated Press]

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