Thousands flock to smell plant that reeks of dead rat, rotting rubbish

She may smell like rotting flesh but “Putricia”, the internet-famous corpse flower, has been the centre of attention at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney over the last two days.

The uncommon plant, known as “Titan Arum” or “bunga bangkai” in Indonesia where it grows wild, started to bloom on Thursday, emitting an odor similar to that of a “dead rat” type.

With 11 corpse flowers in the collection, staff at the gardens traditionally give each a nickname and this time they settled on “Putricia” – a combination of “putrid” and “Patricia”.

Over the past 18 days, Putricia has also become a bit of a political influencer thanks to thousands of viewers watching her go from being a bud to a 1 meter-tall flower in real time.

With more than 1.5 million views and a very active Discord community, John Siemon, director of horticulture and living collections at the gardens, says staff have been “shell shocked” by Putricia’s sudden popularity.

According to Siemon, at least 20 000 enthusiastic onlookers have since opened the doors in the past week in search of Putricia.

Putricia had taken a while to start producing her distinctive perfume, according to Sydney Botanic Gardens’ Professor Brett Summerell, but the scent was still present when it was 20 meters away from her pavilion on Thursday evening.

“It’s a little bit of a build-up”, he said. As the flower begins to grow, it begins to generate heat, which causes chemical reactions over time.

The plant is attempting to produce the most of that smell so that beetles, flies, and insects from the entire jungle can visit it and pollinate it.

The oversize flower has fluted crimson petals and a pointed center stalk that can reach 3 meters (10 feet) across.

The flower’s disgusting smell and reddish-purple structure is designed to lure pollinators so it can reproduce.

The plant typically only blooms once every few years and only lasts for about a day. Putricia is the fifth corpse flower to bloom in the gardens since it hasn’t bloomed since 2010.

The corpse flower’s yellow stalk collapses after about 48 hours, requiring a minimum of three to five years before the plant can bloom once more.

Sydney resident Rebecca McGee-Collett, who waited 90 minutes to see the flower on Thursday evening, said the flower was beautiful but the smell was” like hot garbage”.