Australia holds its nose for its third rancid bloom of a rare corpse plant in 3 months

A rare bloom with a pungent

odor like decaying flesh has opened in the Australian capital in the nation’s third such extraordinary flowering in as many months.

The corpse flower, also known by its scientific name amorphophallus titanium, bloomed for the first time in its 15 years at Canberra’s Australian National Botanic Gardens on Saturday and was closing on Monday, staff said.

Another flowered briefly in the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens in late January, attracting 20,000 admirers. Similar numbers turned out to experience another rancid bloom at the Geelong Botanic Gardens southwest of Melbourne in November.

(A rare flower that smell like decaying flesh)

(People gather around a corpse flower that begins to bloom at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney)

(A corpse flower begins to bloom at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney)

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.

“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.

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.

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.

Ref: Australia holds its nose for its third rancid bloom of a rare corpse plant in 3 months Photo Credit- AP Photo/ Rick Rycroft, AP