'Corpse flower' raises a stink in Sydney
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-08 09:21

Hundreds of people queued up in Sydney to get a glimpse and a whiff of a blooming "corpse flower", the world's largest and arguably smelliest flower.

People queued up in Sydney to get a glimpse and a whiff of a blooming "corpse flower", the world's largest and arguably smelliest flower. [AFP]

The Titan Arum's smell is described as something like rotting flesh or fish gone bad, hence its nickname. Its blooms, which can have a diameter of as much as four feet (1.33 metres), release a pungent stench to attract insects.

It has been drawing huge crowds to Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens since it reached full bloom overnight.

It is only the second time the crimson, frilly-edged plant -- a native of neighbouring Indonesia -- has flowered in Australia.

"We've never had one flower in Sydney before so there is unprecedented interest from tourists as well as locals," said a spokeswoman for the Royal Botanic Gardens Trust.

"We've got people queuing for up to half an hour waiting to get in to see it."

The plant, whose scientific name is Amorphophallus titanum, blooms only two or three times during a 40-year lifespan. The current one is expected to survive another two or three days.

"The stalk will bend over and it just dehydrates," the spokeswoman said.

First seen by Europeans in Sumatra island in 1878, the plant flowers only infrequently in the wild and even more rarely when domesticated.

It first flowered in culture at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, Britain. Other recent flowerings have been at the University of California and the United States Botanic Garden in Washington DC.

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