Milwaukee Domes corpse flower blooms, odor draws crowds

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee's Mitchell Park Domes were abuzz Saturday as people lined up to see – and smell – a corpse flower that is now in bloom.  

What is a corpse flower?

The backstory:

The flower, which staff named "Penelope," started to bloom on Friday night. It can take years for the flower to store enough energy for a single bloom, and the timing is hard to predict. Penelope last bloomed in June 2024.

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While many flowers are known for their pleasant or sweet aroma, Penelope draws crowds for the opposite reason. The Domes said the corpse flower's smell is often compared to a dead mouse or rotting flesh. Some people think it smells like wet socks or garbage.

"It's a short-lived bloom on this very rare plant. We think there are only possibly a thousand specimens in the world, and we have Penelope in the Tropical Dome," said Eric Levin, visitor experience coordinator at The Domes.

Corpse flowers are native to Sumatran rainforests and are considered an endangered plant in the wild. It has the largest unbranched flowering structure on Earth.

Odor in bloom

What they're saying:

FOX6 News spoke to some people who waited in line to get a whiff who said it was worth the wait.

"It was awesome. It was really big, and as soon as you walked in you could smell it," said Abigail Korman. It was really bad at first. It was kind of like a trash smell."

What you can do:

The smell does not last very long, and it's expected to diminish a bit overnight, but the flower itself is interesting to look at. However, The Domes are open again from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday if you want to try to smell for yourself. Last admission is at 3 p.m.

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