One by one, visitors to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden pulled out their phones snap pictures of the rare blooming plant before leaning in to brave a whiff of its infamously putrid scent, which resembles that of rotting flesh.

Visitors crowded the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Friday, January 24, to catch a glimpse of the blooming Amorphophallus gigas, also known as a “corpse flower,” due to its unique stench. The rare flower is native to Sumatra,

Most of the time, people don’t make a pilgrimage to see (and smell) something that smells like rotting meat. But this case is different.