The corpse flower that bloomed at the University of California, Davis, Botanical Conservatory last week is now fading. Ted the Titan, a specimen of Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum), will rest until producing a leaf, or perhaps another huge flower, next year. But the brief blooming brought a flurry of experiments from UC Davis biologists eager to take advantage of the rare event. And if you missed the stinky spectacle, you can still order a T-shirt.

Ted's flower reached a modest height of 43 inches. Titan arum flowers may reach a height of 6 feet, with a recent bloom in Bonn, Germany, setting a record of nearly 9 feet in height. But the flower lasted longer than expected, opening on Monday, June 9, and fading the following week.

"We may not have had the largest flower, but we're the longest lasting," said conservatory curator Ernesto Sandoval.

Others were marveling at the endurance of Sandoval's voice, as he spent the past week telling a stream of visitors about the plant from early morning to late at night. Sandoval estimated that about a thousand people visited the greenhouse on Tuesday, June 10, with hundreds more on Wednesday and Thursday.

The flower produced wafts of its distinctive roadkill scent throughout, but was at its most pungent in the first few hours of blooming.

Monday night's blooming, which was earlier than expected, set scientists scrambling to set up equipment.

"I was passing the greenhouse, and it seemed like an interesting opportunity," said toxicologist Bruce Hammock. Hammock and postdoctoral researcher Katja Dettmer collected air samples from around the plant that they will analyze to pin down the source of Ted's perfume.

"There are some interesting issues, such as where the smell comes from," said plant biologist Terry Murphy, who said he had been "agitating other people to do things" once he heard the flower was blooming.

Ken Shackel, a professor of pomology, set up temperature probes to measure heat generated by the plant. Between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. on June 9, the central spike, or spadix, heated up by 20 degrees to a peak of 91.5 degrees, and didn't start to cool off until 3.30 a.m. the next day, falling to room temperature by dawn.

"I guess we'd have to call this a plant's version of the one-night stand," Shackel said. The heat may help to release the scent and attract pollinating flies.

During the following day, the flower's surface temperature fell below air temperature. Tests showed a large amount of water was being lost from the flower, something more typically seen in leaves. That would have a cooling effect on the plant.

Judy Jernstedt, a professor of agronomy and range science, used dental impression paste to take casts of the spadix surface. She will use light and scanning electron microscopes to look for stomata, the tiny pores that control water loss from leaves. The pattern or distribution of stomata might be useful for understanding the heating and water loss observed with the other instruments, Jernstedt said.

Researchers also took pieces of tissue to study the biochemistry behind the heating and the smell. The heating, which involves a process called mitochondrial uncoupling, occurs because the machinery that normally generates energy for cells generates excess heat.

Amorphophallus titanum, which is native to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, spends most of its life as an underground stem called a corm. Once a year, the plant puts out a single green leaf that lasts about six months. Eventually, it puts out a flower shoot instead, hoping to attract flies carrying pollen from another of its kind.

Ted was grown from a seed planted in 1995. This was its first flowering. The plants can live for several decades but are thought to flower only every few years.

The scientists may get a chance to repeat their observations. The conservatory has another three mature plants, each of which could bloom next year.

T-shirts carrying pictures of the plant are still available. Proceeds from the sale of T-shirts will benefit programs at the Botanical Conservatory.