Huge crowds queue up in Sydney to grab a bunch of flowers that smell like ‘hot rubbish’
They may smell like rotting flesh but the internet’s most famous corpse flower, “Puteria”, has been the center of attention at Sydney’s Botanic Gardens over the past couple of days.
The rare plant – scientific name Amorphophallus titanum, but also known as “titan arum” or “bunga bankai” in Indonesia where it grows wild – began to bloom on Thursday, with the aromatic profile of a “dead rat”. Because of this, there is an odor. .
With 11 corpse flowers in the collection, staff at the gardens traditionally give each one a nickname and this time they settled on “Peteria” – a portmanteau of “putrid” and “patricia”.
Potresia has also become an influencer over the past 18 days, as thousands of people watched a live stream created by the agency to watch its development from a mere bud to a 1.6-meter-tall flower in real time. Can be delivered.
With more than 1.5 million views and a very active Discord community, John Simon, director of horticulture and residential collections at the Gardens, says staff have been “shell-shocked” by the sudden popularity of potresia.
At least 20,000 excited spectators have passed through the gates over the past week, Simon said.
Sydney Botanic Gardens Chief Scientist Professor Brett Summerill said the putresia had taken time to develop its unique scent but was at its peak on Thursday evening when the smell was detected 20 meters away outside its pavilion. could
“It’s a bit of a build-up,” he said. “Over a period of time, as the flower begins to bloom, it starts to generate heat and that heat is starting to cause chemical reactions.
“What the plant is trying to do is produce as much of that smell as possible so it attracts insects, bees and beetles throughout the forest to come and pollinate it.”
The massive flowers feature fluted crimson petals and can measure over a meter (3 ft) across with a pointed center stalk that can top 3 meters (10 ft).
The flower’s pungent odor and red willow structure are designed to attract pollinators so it can reproduce.
The plant usually blooms no more than once every few years and lasts only one day. A specimen has not bloomed in Sydney since 2010, making Patricia the fifth corpse flower to bloom in the Gardens.
After about 48 hours, the yellow stalk at the center of the corpse flower falls off and it will be at least three to five years before the plant blooms again.
Sydney resident Rebecca McGee Collett, who waited 90 minutes to see the flowers on Thursday evening, said the flower was beautiful but smelled “like hot rubbish”.
The plant is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra and is endangered due to habitat loss and poaching, with 300-500 specimens of titan arum left in the wild.
