Image: botanicsydney/Instagram
The Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney will be welcoming a new queen this weekend, with their Corpse Flower expected to bloom any minute now.
The amorphophallus titanum, or “Bunga Bangkai” in Indonesian, is an endangered plant found only in the rainforests of western Sumatra. The plants can weight over fifty kilos and take years to flower, with the resulting bloom only sticking around for 24 hours.
But of course, the flower is most infamous for its smell.
“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,” said Paul Nicholson, manager of the Botanic Gardens volunteer programs. “It’s actually stunningly beautiful as well.”
The first Corpse Flower bloomed in the Sydney Gardens in 2004, but it’s been 15 years since the nostrils of Sydneysiders were last blessed with the stench.
Although its difficult to predict exactly when the flower will bloom, horticulturalists have been measuring the spike in the centre of the plant (the spadix) carefully- between Thursday and Friday, it grew a whole 13 centimetres!
It’s after this growth spurt that the petals will unfurl, which experts estimate will happen anytime between now and Monday.
Sydney, meet your queen
This particular flower has been named ‘Putricia’ and she’s tucked away behind a red velvet rope, just waiting to meet you.
If you want to get a whiff of this legendary fragrance first hand, or if you just want to appreciate the stinky queen that is Putricia in person, you’ve got a tight deadline.
Remember, once Putricia blooms, you’ll have only 24 hours to see her in all her glory before she tucks herself away for another decade or so.
The Royal Botanic Gardens will have her on display once she’s open, and visitors are asked to donate to the gardens to see her.
Naturally, the crowds will be flocking to Putricia, but the gardens will be extending their opening hours to midnight the day she blooms.
If you’re a bit queasy at the mere thought of her perfume, or live too far away from Sydney, the gardens have also set up a live stream– who knows, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to catch her the exact moment she opens.
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