The corpse flower in bloom at The Spheres on Amazon’s campus in downtown Seattle (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

A giant flower that takes seven years to bloom and smells like rotting flesh was Seattle’s hottest ticket on Saturday night, with crowds packing Amazon’s Spheres to get a look at the botanical oddity known as the corpse flower.

Crowds wait for a glimpse of the corpse flower at The Spheres. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

The blooming plant is called Amorphophallus titanum and is native to Sumatra. It is commonly called the corpse flower because of the rotten smell it emits during bloom. The foul smell helps to attract pollinators. The plant takes at least 7 years to produce its first bloom, which only lasts about 48 hours. Amazon’s plant, affectionately named “Morticia,” started blooming on Friday afternoon and was nearly done by late Saturday night.

Amazon opened The Spheres to the public for viewing of the corpse flower bloom on Saturday, welcoming over 5,000 visitors with lines out the door well into the night.

Lines of visitors wait outside of The Spheres to get a look at the corpse flower bloom (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

The bloom and viewing opportunity will likely be over by the time you read this, but you can check out a livestream of the bloom here.

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