I was keen to see the huge Corpse Flower when it opened at the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. The Corpse Flower, Amorphophallus titanum, supposedly has the biggest and smelliest flower in the world, and they only flower, roughly, once per decade. Staff at the Gardens had named this particular flower “Putricia”. The flowers are native to Indonesia and are endangered in the wild.
The interest in the flower was amazing. A lot of people had been watching it during the previous week or so, on a live webcam feed. The previous afternoon, it had slowly opened. But it would only stay open for roughly 24 to 48 hours, so the next day, there was a long queue a the Botanic Gardens entrance an hour before they opened.
I met up with Sue outside the Gardens around 7am, and we joined the queue.
The public viewing of the flower would start at 8 am.
At 8:40 am, we reached the Glasshouse where Patricia was –
We could see and small the massive flower –
We could see small hole cut in the back of the flower by Garden’s staff when they artificially pollinated it, with pollen from another Botanic Garden.
It was well worth the wait to see this extraordinary flower. As for the smell – it was not too putrid, perhaps more like old socks rather than a dead body.
Apparently the Sydney Gardens has a dozen of these plants, so hopefully we will see more blooming in the future.