The University of Virginia Tech has hosted a rare viewing of a "corpse flower" in bloom.

Hundreds lined up to see the Indonesian Amorphophallus titanum, which blooms only once every few years, and produces a stench which can be smelled over a hundred yards away.

Curator Debbie Wiley-Vawter tells reporters that it went into bloom late Friday, and smelled "like several days old road kill on a hot, sunny day. Inside the greenhouse it was quite overpowering."

According to the Associated Press, the plant emits a stench to attract decaying flesh-eating beetles, flies and sweat bees for pollination. Once it blooms, the odor lingers for about eight hours, then it takes several more years before the plant has enough energy to bloom again.

Virginia Tech has the only two blooming corpse plants in Virginia after they were donated by James Symon of Sumatra in 1993.