Tourists are lining up in Belgium for the chance to visit a huge, foul-smelling plant.

 

A Titan Arum, one of the world's largest, rarest and smelliest flowers, is in bloom in a Brussels hothouse for the third time in five years in a rare botanical feat for a plant that generally goes four or five years without blooming.

 

Variously known as a "corpse flower" in Indonesia where first found, the strange but spectacular specimen began to bloom Sunday in the national botanical gardens, the Jardin de Meise, on the outskirts of the Belgian capital.

 

The plant, which looks a little like a giant ear of corn until the red-rimmed flower opens leaving a stench of rotting flesh or fish. At the heart of the flower a huge column rises upward to the sky and is responsible for the smell that resembles a decomposing animal.

 

The rare Sumatran plant has this year, a height of 2.44 meters. It only flowers for three days, and is expected to wane on Wednesday.

 

The national botanical garden was staying open until dusk for a second day Tuesday to give as many people as possible a view of the titan arum that's towering over the visitors.