Nearly 20,000 people visited the Sydney Botanic Gardens to smell an endangered plant known as the “corpse flower” as it bloomed.
Nicknamed Puttricia, the titan arum plant gives off a putrid odor comparable to “something rotten” or “hot waste” for 24 hours after flowering.
The smell is the result of a chemical production that occurs in the plant to attract pollinators.
This endangered flower, native to Sumatra, Indonesia, only blooms every 7 to 10 years in the wild. It is estimated that there are fewer than 1,000 plants in the world, including cultivated ones.
