It came, it kind of smelled, it withered. The blooming of the U.S. Botanic Garden’s titan arum earlier this month brought many visitors to the Capitol Hill conservatory for a chance to smell the plant’s putrid stench.

Sadly, the corpse flower bloomed at a time when there weren’t any visitors at the Botanic Garden. Its peak stink was lost to the world. But in the hopes that there will be a next time (and there may be, considering the Botanic Garden has several titan arums), let’s take this opportunity to learn about the chemistry behind the smell. Watch Todd Brethauer, the Botanic Garden’s public science educator, explain the chemical ingredients to Bytesize Science.