Rare Corpse Flower in Sydney to Bloom for First Time in 15 Years

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Sydney’s corpse flower Putricia is on display at the Royal Botanic Garden.
It will only bloom for about 24 hours before dying.
Thousands of people are watching Putricia’s live stream on YouTube.

Thousands of people are watching a live stream of a flower doing nothing.

They’re hoping they might catch the moment a rare corpse flower will bloom for the first time in 15 years at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden (RBG).

Nicknamed ‘Putricia’, Sydney’s flower is set to bloom any moment — emitting a foul odour for 24 hours before it dies.

The big moment could be on Monday night or the following day, according to horticulturalists at the botanic gardens, who have set up a dedicated display for Putricia, with a warm mister, for tens of thousands of visitors to attend.

Once it blooms, the gardens will remain open until midnight to accommodate additional visitors.

What is the corpse flower?

The flower, scientifically known as Amorphophallus titanum and called Bunga Bangkai in Indonesian, is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra and is one of the largest flowers in the world when it blooms.

Horticulturalists said the spike in the centre of the rare and endangered flower measures 158cm and is still growing. Once it stops growing, the petals will begin to open.

People surround a large flower inside a shed.

The corpse flower is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Source: AAP / George Chan / SOPA Images/ Sipa USA

When the flower blooms, it emits a strong stench to attract pollinators like beetles and flies, which mistake the odour for that of a rotting animal and lay their eggs in it.

“The smell and colour of the flower trick them into visiting and the heat generated by the plant entices them to visit, breed and party,” the RBG said in a statement.

Paul Nicholson, manager of volunteer programs at the RBG, said: “If you’ve got some wet teenage socks, throw that into a blender, then you get some cat food you’ve left out in the sun, whack that in your blender, and then get some day old vomit. Put that in the blender, blend it all up, rip the lid off.”

“That’s the kind of smell you’re getting.

“It’s actually stunningly beautiful as well.”

‘The unproblematic queen’

Live stream viewers have been enchanted by Putricia, with many praising the flower’s beauty and calling it an “unproblematic queen”.

“She radiates greatness”, one person commented, while another said they are “usually anti-cult, but this one I can definitely get behind”.

One person said, “I’ve never been so invested in a plant,” while others commented on the live stream, saying the flower is far more interesting than the ongoing Australian Open tennis tournament.

Both Melbourne and Geelong Botanic Gardens had corpse flower blooms last year as growers worldwide work to prevent the plant from extinction.