Denver's 'Corpse Flower' Really Does Smell Like Rotting Meat

From the front of the 3-hour line where thousands of people wait to sniff the first bloom of a giant corpse flower in Colorado, the stench is more like a whiff. This is the smell used by the corpse flower, or titan arum, to lure flies and beetles to its blossom. Around the back of the greenhouse here at the Denver Botanic Gardens, the smell is stronger, drawn out by the fans that circulate air through the building.