( CNN ) -- The United Kingdom has royal baby watch . Zoo Atlanta had panda baby watch . Now Washington has stinky flower watch . The enormous plant known as the corpse flower is expected to bloom and stink up the grounds at the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory sometime this week . It will be the first flowering of this titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ) , also known as the stinky plant , which has lived at the garden since 2007 . The plant does n't have an annual blooming cycle ; it can wait years or even decades between cycles . It 's expected to heat up , start smelling like dead animals and bloom overnight or in the early morning hours -- though exactly which night it will happen is not known . The heat and smell is to attract pollinator insects such as dung beetles in its natural habitat , said Ari Novy , the garden 's public programs manager . The garden does n't have any such beetles but resident flies could come calling , he said . Impala escapes cheetahs by leaping into tourists ' SUV . Once the garden confirmed on Monday , July 8 , that the plant was going to bloom , staffers moved quickly to display it publicly on July 11 . A native of Sumatra , Indonesia , this particular plant is part of the garden 's collection of 14 corpse flowers . They are rarely put on display because they require a lot of heat and humidity , which is why they are grown at the garden 's production greenhouses in Southeast Washington -- rarely open to the public . Now the star of the garden , the plant is growing quickly . It was 52 inches tall when it was put on display on July 11 . By Saturday morning , it measured 62 inches high and 69 inches by Sunday night . Tuesday morning , it was 79 inches tall . Once completely open , it can stay in bloom for 24 to 48 hours , and then it will collapse quickly . The U.S. Botanic Garden last displayed a blooming titan arum in 2007 . At least seven U.S. institutions have at least one titan arum in each of its collections . The garden will have extended hours from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday . If you ca n't make it to the nation 's capital watch it open up online on the garden 's live flower cam . The National Botanic Garden of Belgium saw its oldest corpse flower bloom last week , attracting about 4,000 visitors over three days , said garden spokesman Franck Hidvegi . It previously bloomed in 2008 and 2011 . The garden has another four plants in its greenhouses , but Hidvegi said they are still too young to bloom .
A tropical flower at the Royal Botanic Garden will open for the first time ever . Native to the island of Sumatra , Indonesia , they take years to grow . When they are blooming , they are very hot and stinky .