Rare Stinky Flower Expected to Bloom at Mitchell Park Domes

Penelope, a corpse flower, is seen here at the domes in Milwaukee on June 22, 2026. Evan Casey/WPR

A rare and stinky flower nicknamed Penelope is set to make its mark at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Domes.

Penelope is a corpse flower and she’s expected to bloom later this week — the second time the plant has flowered in two years.

“The name really does it justice,” said Michelle Pinnola, a horticulturist at the domes. “It is like a dead animal smell, and what that does is it attracts pollinators.”

The endangered plant is native to Sumatra, Indonesia. There are fewer than 1,000 of the plants left in the wild, according to the website for the domes.

“So what’s exciting about the corpse flower is that it takes about eight to ten years to bloom from a seed, and then after that it can bloom more frequently,”  Pinnola said.

“So it’s exciting that Penelope is blooming again so soon,” she added.

Once it blooms, it’s only open for around 24 to 36 hours. Pinnola said it could be open for 48 hours, “if we’re lucky.” After it blooms, “it’ll shrivel up and kind of fall over,” she said.

“People know it for the smell, but I think it’s really cool that it is the largest flower that we know of on earth and also that it is thermogenic, which means that it generates its own heat,” Pinnola said.

According to the Milwaukee Domes Alliance, the flower “produces the largest unbranched flowering structure in the plant kingdom.”

A growth tracker is keeping tabs on Penelope’s growth. Evan Casey/WPR

On Monday morning, the flower was around 48 inches tall and 36 inches in diameter. Penelope bloomed at 62.5 inches in 2024. By Pinnola’s estimation, it will bloom on Thursday.

“The smell is most powerful in the first hours after the bloom opens — often overnight — and fades well before the bloom itself closes, so what you notice depends on when you visit,” the website for the domes said. “It’s a full sensory experience: towering, warm to the touch of the air around it, and impossible to forget.”

Doris Maki, the director of the Mitchell Park Domes, said she expects trips to the domes to increase over the next few days.

“There’s some people that have seen it before, they’re like true corpse flowers fans,” Maki said. “You’re gonna see some people with t-shirts, corpse flower t-shirts, and some people that come to see it for the first time. It’s just as exciting every time.”

Maki said she enjoys seeing peoples faces when they catch a glimpse of the flower.

“And they all want a picture, so it’s just like taking turns and posing with a corpse flower, because it’s a thing,” she said. “You want it for social media, and to have fun with it.”

Maki encouraged people to check the Domes website and social media to find out when it finally blooms. She said they may also extend hours or open up early to allow more people in to witness the spectacle.

The Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee were temporally closed in 2016 due to falling concrete and glass. This photo was taken Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. Alana Watson/WPR

Rare — and stinky — flower expected to bloom at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Domes was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.