Thousands queue at Geelong Botanic Gardens to get a whiff of Australia’s stinkiest flower
Huge crowds line up for a rare glimpse of an exotic giant flower that opens only every seven to 10 years and releases the nauseating smell of rotting flesh.
The so-called ‘corpse flower’, which comes from Indonesia and has the botanical designation Amorphophallus Titanum, is well into its 48-hour, 10-year flowering period at Geelong Botanic Gardens.
The gardens, located an hour’s drive southwest of Melbourne, have opened their conservatory for 24 hours so that everyone can see the rare sight of the enormous purple petals and experience the unpleasant aroma.
Geelong Botanic Gardens coordinator Kellee Reisinger told Nine News she had heard the smell of the flower described as “a mix between vomit and maybe some dog feces.”
Hundreds have already passed by the rare flower, but for those who can’t be there in person, the venue has created a video live streaming.
A bloom will deplete the flower’s energy and then the plant will retreat underground to build up the stores to grow and reopen in another 10 years.
The scent used to attract scavenging insects comes from a group of volatile molecules produced by the plant.
These include dimethyl disulfide (garlic), dimethyl trisulfide (rotten meat), methyl thioacetate (sulfur), and isovaleric acid (cheese or sweat).
A so-called giant ‘corpse flower’ that takes a decade to open has blossomed at the Geelong Botanic Gardens
The smell is described as ‘a mix between vomit and perhaps dog poop’
Because chemical processes heat up the plant, it can sometimes even steam.
Mrs. Reissinger told it The era the flower attracts insects that are also eager to reproduce by finding a suitable carcass.
“The insects are running around, trying to find the best place to lay their eggs, and as they do they run around the male and female parts of the flowers,” she said.
‘They will leave disappointed, but covered in the plant’s pollen. If this were Sumatra, hopefully they would come across another corpse flower to spread it.”
Corpse flowers only grow naturally in the tropical jungles of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia, but are an endangered species.
Their numbers are threatened by the encroaching palm oil plantations, of which it is estimated that only 1,000 remain in the wild.
The plants that only grow naturally in the Indonesian regions of Sumatra and Java are an endangered species
The greenhouse where the flower grew will be open for 24 hours so that as many visitors as possible can experience this rare event
Gardens and greenhouses all over the world try to preserve the species.
The corpse flower in Geelong was grown from a gifted seed sourced from the Adelaide Botanic Garden.
Adelaide’s corpse flower bloomed last year.