In Melbourne, a rare bloom with a strong smell similar to decaying flesh has blossomed in the Australian capital, marking the nation’s third extraordinary flowering in recent months.
The bloom, known as the corpse flower or scientifically as amorphophallus titanium, has flowered for the first time in its 15-year existence at Canberra’s Australian National Botanic Gardens. The flowering started on Saturday and is expected to close on Monday, according to garden staff.
Earlier, a similar bloom occurred at the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens in late January, drawing a crowd of 20,000 onlookers. In November, another foul-smelling bloom captivated a large audience at the Geelong Botanic Gardens, located southwest of Melbourne.
What is a corpse flower?
The corpse flower or corpse plant, known as bunga bangkai in its native Indonesia, is endemic to the rainforests of western Sumatra.
It only blooms for a few days every 7 to 10 years in its natural habitat. Its rancid scent attracts pollinators such as flies.
There are thought to be only 300 of the plants in the wild and fewer than 1,000 including those in cultivation.
Why have three bloomed in Australia in as many months?
Canberra’s acting nursery manager Carol Dale said there was no clear explanation for Australia’s spate of putrid blooms.
A flower is produced when the plant has stored enough energy in its underground tuber known as a corm.
“One of the theories is that a lot of these plants are of a similar age, so they have just stored up enough carbohydrates in the corm to finally produce a flower,” Dale said.
“All of the plants around Australia are held in different conditions, so it’s unusual that they’re all flowering at the same time.” she added.
She said Canberra, Sydney and Geelong had different climates. Gardeners used different fertilizing regimes on each plant and different management plans.
Was the Canberra bloom expected?
Dale said that after 15 years without a bloom, she had decided that Canberra, which occasionally receives snowfall, was not the place for a corpse plant to thrive.
“It’s been in our collection for slightly longer than these plants would normally take to flower for the first time, so we just didn’t think we had the right conditions here in Canberra,” Dale said.
“So yes, it did catch us by surprise; a very pleasant one,” she added.
The flower began opening around lunchtime on Saturday and its rancid odor quickly deteriorated.
“By Saturday evening, it was incredibly pungent. We could smell it from across the road. It was definitely gag worthy,” Dale said.
The crowds attracted to the 135-centimeter (53-inch) tall flower were limited to the hundreds by a ticketing system due to space constraints within the greenhouse.
Admirers likened the stench to a range of dead animals, rotten eggs, sweaty socks, sewage and garbage.
Dale said the worst had passed by Monday.
“We collected pollen about an hour ago and when you’re right up close to the plant, it’s still got that rotting flesh smell,” she said.
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