The 2-metre-high (6.5 feet) Titan arum rarely flowers and is notoriously difficult to propagate. The Jindai botanical gardens in the city of Chofu have extended their opening hours especially to allow hundreds of visitors to see the flower, which only blooms for one or two days, Japan's Kyodo News Service reports.

TTitan Arum - a herbaceous plant - blooms rarely (maybe three or four times in its forty-year life) and that too only for two or three days.

The last time this species bloomed in the botanical garden in the city of Chofu was on July 22, 2010.

Also called the corpse flower, it has an overpowering smell resembling rotting meat that attracts pollinating insects.

The plant can grow to a height of three metres (10 feet) and is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

It has been classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to threat from widespread deforestation.