It’s not every day that you get to witness the blooming of a corpse flower (Titan arum), subtly named for its not-so-subtle odor, which resembles that of a rotting corpse. The smell of a corpse flower is so strong that it attracts insects that are normally found around rotting carcasses, such as sweat bees and carrion beetles.
These flowers are rare to see in the process in blooming, and that’s why thousands of tourists are visiting the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden in Australia to see a newly-bloomed corpse flower before the flower wilts within just 48 hours after its time of blooming.
“It’s crazy,” Matt Coulter, the garden’s horticultural curator said in a statement to The Guardian. “I thought quite a few people would be interested, but nothing like this. It smells mostly at night time, but it still smells pretty bad in here at the moment – sort of like sulphuric gas or rotting fish.”
Corpse Flowers, being as rare as they are, can take up to a decade to grow, and they can grow very tall – up to three meters (about 9 feet) in height.
Those involved in taking care of the flower noted that the aroma started to grow two weeks ago, signaling that the corpse flower was getting ready to bloom and begin its stenchy flowering process.
The flower fully opened on Monday, and you can view the blooming process in a time lapse video below provided by Botanic Gardens of South Australia:
This particular flower stands two meters tall, and despite not being as tall as some others, is most certainly just as stinky.
Source: The Guardian