What flower has been likened to "3-day-old road-kill," "rotting flesh," and "fish gone bad"? The answer is the corpse flower.

The corpse flower (titan arum), native to the equatorial forests of Sumatra, can grow up to 10 feet tall. Once opened, the spiked, bright red bloom even looks like rotten meat, a veritable welcome mat for the insects that pollinate it—flies and carrion beetles.

According to University of Connecticut research assistant Matthew Opel, the corpse flower "looks like something has died. It smells like something has died. It has the same chemicals that dead bodies produce."

The flower, however, which begins to disintegrate after two days, is nothing but a big practical joke to the flies and other carrion insects, says Opel. "Unlike other plants that offer nectar, there's no real reward here. They think they're going to get a meal because it smells like something dead."

Thus is the story of sin. It is attractive. It holds out promises yet has no true rewards. And it ends in death.