Huge crowds queued in Sydney to catch a whiff of the flower that smells like ‘hot rubbish’
She may smell like rotting flesh but “Putricia”, the internet-famous corpse flower, has been the centre of attention at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney over the last two days.
The rare plant – scientific name amorphophallus titanum, but also known as “Titan Arum” or “bunga bangkai” in Indonesia where it grows wild – began to bloom on Thursday, giving off an odour described as having the aromatic profile of “dead rat”.
With 11 corpse flowers in the collection, staff at the gardens traditionally give each a nickname and this time they settled on “Putricia” – a combination of “putrid” and “Patricia”.
Putricia has also become something of an influencer over the last 18 days, as thousands monitored a livestream created by the institution to document her growth from a mere bud to a 1.6-metre-tall flower in real time.
With more than 1.5 million views and a very active Discord community, John Siemon, director of horticulture and living collections at the gardens, says staff have been “shell shocked” by Putricia’s sudden popularity.
Siemon said at least 20,000 excited onlookers have since passed through the doors to catch a whiff of Putricia over the last week.
Sydney Botanic Gardens chief scientist Professor Brett Summerell said Putricia had taken time to ramp up production of her unique perfume but was at her height on Thursday evening when the smell could be detected from 20 metres away, outside her pavilion.
“It’s a little bit of a build-up,” he said. “Over a period of time, as the flower starts to unfurl, it starts to generate heat and that heat starts to generate chemical reactions.
“What the plant is trying to do is produce maximum amounts of that smell so it attracts insects, flies and beetles from all across the jungle so they can come and pollinate it.”
The oversize flower features fluted crimson petals and can measure more than a metre (3 ft) across with a pointed centre stalk that can top 3 metres (10 ft).
The flower’s disgusting smell and reddish-purple structure is designed to lure pollinators so it can reproduce.
The plant typically does not bloom more than once every few years and lasts only about a day. A specimen has not bloomed in Sydney since 2010, making Putricia the fifth corpse flower to bloom at the gardens.
After about 48 hours, the yellow stalk at the centre of the corpse flower collapses and it will be a minimum of three to five years before the plant can bloom again.
Sydney resident Rebecca McGee-Collett, who waited 90 minutes to see the flower on Thursday evening, said the flower was beautiful but the smell was “like hot garbage”.
The plant is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra and is listed as endangered due to habitat loss and poaching, with 300-500 specimens of Titan Arum thought to be left in the wild.