'Musky' The Corpse Flower Has Bloomed At The Milwaukee Domes

MILWAUKEE, WI — A massive corpse flower named "Musky" has bloomed at Milwaukee's Mitchell Park Domes, bringing along a strange stench and sight, but only for a short time.

The Domes announced the blooming on Friday, calling it one of their most exciting and infrequent events, memorable for its "unpleasantness." The stench comes along to attract pollinating bugs, but the flower only is in bloom for a short time.

Located at 524 South Layton Boulevard in Milwaukee, the Domes are open Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. with the last admission at 4 p.m. The park is also open Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. with last admissions at 3 p.m. When a corpse flower like Musky blooms, it typically lasts around 24-36 hours. Musky has had three siblings bloom in the past at the domes.

The flower, also known as Amorphophallus titanum, is native to the rainforests of Western Sumatra Indonesia. It brings a distinct smell of rotting flesh and death when it blooms every eight years or so in order to attract pollinating bugs like dung beetles and flies, according to LiveScience.com.

The Domes said it first became home to a corpse flower in 2007 with a donation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison greenhouse. The original "corm" has produced 10 off-shoots and three blooms so far.

The growth cycle of the flower includes sprouting a large stalk that can reach 15 feet tall, before the leaf stalk dies and the corm goes dormant, the Domes said. But then a new leaf stalk emerges and repeats the cycle before it forms a flower.