Corpse flower at Gustavus Adolphus College blooms 'like a burst in the sky' on July 4th

ST. PETER, MINN. — The stench of rotting flesh mingled with July 4th smells such as hot dogs on the grill and freshly mown grass on Independence Day in this college town.

The corpse flower burst into full bloom on the night of the 4th, according to professors and staff at Gustavus Adolphus College.

The flower, known as Gemini, follows a pattern in which the stinky plants at Gustavus keep opening up on American holidays, said Brian O'Brien, professor emeritus in chemistry at the college.

"They tend to do that, oddly enough," O'Brien said.

The first corpse flower in Minnesota opened up at the college on Mother's Day in 2007. Another opened up on Halloween night in 2013. Gemini's genetic twin opened on Father's Day this year.

And this year on the Fourth of July, Gemini's flower spread upward and outward in vibrant hues of red and orange like fireworks. "Like a burst in the sky," O'Brien said.

The rare and endangered corpse doesn't bloom on a schedule and only opens up for a few hours, often spending years or, at times, more than a decade gathering strength for its next appearance.

On Friday morning, the flower smelled like warm, rotting meat. Over the coming hours, the flower will start smelling like fecal matter, decaying fish and sauerkraut, O'Brien said.

Gemini is the third corpse flower bloom in Minnesota this year. The first was at the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory in May.

The biology department has set up a livestream for curious Minnesotans to watch the corpse plant, which will most likely start losing its luster by Friday afternoon before going back into dormancy.

Corpse flowers smell like rotting flesh to attract flies, beetles and other insects that can help spread pollen.

The flowers at Gustavus, like many corpse flowers across America, arrived as a batch of seeds from Indonesia in the 1990s as part of efforts to preserve the endangered species.

The flower that bloomed Thursday night is the genetic twin of the plant that bloomed at the college in June. The two plants used to be in one pot, even blooming together at one point, but their destinies have diverged over time.

"I think it's a little bit worse than the other one," O'Brien said of Thursday's bloom, "in terms of smelling like rotting meat."