Thousands of people flock to see stinky ‘corpse flower’
Would you line up to have a whiff of a flower that smelt like a rotting corpse?
An estimated 5,000 people did this week, when they queued to catch a noseful of the titan arum flower (Amorphophallus titanum) at the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden in Adelaide.
The bloom releases a smell akin to rotting flesh for only 48 hours after the flower first blooms, which takes takes at least seven years to occur. When it’s done with all the blooming shenanigans it simply collapses on itself.
Check out this time-lapse of the flower taking form on Dec. 28, 2015:
It is notoriously difficult to cultivate the titan arum even in optimum conditions, the garden’s horticultural curator of plant propagation, Matt Coulter, said in a statement, making flowering events quite rare. The flower originates in the rainforests of Sumatra, where it is threatened by deforestation.
Viewings of the two metre (6.5 foot) tall plant were open to the public for one day only due to fears about bushfires in the state.
So does it stink as bad as a rotting corpse? Reactions were mixed on Twitter, with some admiring the beauty and size of the flower, rather than decrying its stench.
For once, all everyone wanted was a bigger stink.
Corpse flower “Titan arum” in bloom (for one day) on the right. It didn’t smell like arse as promised. Kinda big tho pic.twitter.com/bUGkM1jR3n
— Marc Stock (@Marcdid) December 29, 2015
Perfume subtler than expected, but then hit in waves. Gardens man said it was much worse this morning @singult #corpseflower
— Sebenezer Scrooge (@sebtonkin) December 29, 2015
The corpse flower at Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. Smell bad. pic.twitter.com/fqguDUEl4L
— Fleur Green (@FleurGreen2) December 29, 2015
#TitanArum #stinkyBGSA @BotGardensSA Worth the wait, quite amazing. We came, we waited, we saw. pic.twitter.com/ztp9tqqQIk
— Jacinta Smith (@hyacinth74) December 29, 2015
Went up to the @BotGardensSA to see and smell the 10 year corpse flower. Was beautiful and didn’t smell bad. pic.twitter.com/hf4G9QNP2s
— Marc Lane (@ozeraser) December 29, 2015
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