A rare Honolulu plant with a foul fragrance attracted a lot of flower fans this week.

The corpse flower was in bloom, which doesn't happen all that often.

"This was the first time it has bloomed for us. It took 10 years," said Foster Botanical Garden horticulturist Scot Mitamura.

The plant's unusual odor normally attracts a certain type of beetle for pollination.  At the garden in Honolulu, it instead attracted a crowd of people interested in the stinky smell.

Many lined up to put their nose up to the large flower, then took a whiff.

"Smells like something you'd find on the beach, out of a shell, something dead," said Aliamanu resident Kent Thompson.

"It smelled like a dead rat. It was very stinky," said Waimanalo resident Isaiah Meheula-Lando.

Forget fragrant flower smells; the corpse flower was filled with stench.

"I thought it smelled like dead fish on the beach," said Tom Mull of Makiki.