MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) 鈥 A rare bloom with a pungent odor like decaying flesh has opened in the Australian capital in the nation鈥檚 third such extraordinary flowering in as many months.
The , also known by its scientific name amorphophallus titanium, bloomed for the first time in its 15 years at Canberra鈥檚 Australian 好色tv Botanic Gardens on Saturday and was closing on Monday, staff said.
in the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens in late January, attracting 20,000 admirers. Similar numbers turned out to experience another rancid bloom at the Geelong Botanic Gardens southwest of Melbourne in November.
What is a corpse flower?
The or corpse plant, known as bunga bangkai in its native Indonesia, is endemic to the rainforests of western Sumatra.
It only blooms for a few days every 7 to 10 years in its natural habitat. Its rancid scent attracts pollinators such as flies.
There are thought to be only 300 of the plants in the wild and fewer than 1,000 including those in cultivation.
Why have three bloomed in Australia in as many months?
Canberra鈥檚 acting nursery manager Carol Dale said there was no clear explanation for Australia鈥檚 spate of putrid blooms.
A flower is produced when the plant has stored enough energy in its underground tuber known as a corm.
鈥淥ne of the theories is that a lot of these plants are of a similar age, so they have just stored up enough carbohydrates in the corm to finally produce a flower,鈥 Dale said.
鈥淎ll of the plants around Australia are held in different conditions, so it鈥檚 unusual that they鈥檙e all flowering at the same time.鈥 she added.
She said Canberra, Sydney and Geelong had different climates. Gardeners used different fertilizing regimes on each plant and different management plans.
Was the Canberra bloom expected?
Dale said that after 15 years without a bloom, she had decided that Canberra, which occasionally receives snowfall, was not the place for a corpse plant to thrive.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been in our collection for slightly longer than these plants would normally take to flower for the first time, so we just didn鈥檛 think we had the right conditions here in Canberra,鈥 Dale said.
鈥淪o yes, it did catch us by surprise; a very pleasant one,鈥 she added.
The flower began opening around lunchtime on Saturday and its rancid odor quickly deteriorated.
鈥淏y Saturday evening, it was incredibly pungent. We could smell it from across the road. It was definitely gag worthy,鈥 Dale said.
The crowds attracted to the 135-centimeter (53-inch) tall flower were limited to the hundreds by a ticketing system due to space constraints within the greenhouse.
Admirers likened the stench to a range of dead animals, rotten eggs, sweaty socks, sewage and garbage.
Dale said the worst had passed by Monday.
鈥淲e collected pollen about an hour ago and when you鈥檙e right up close to the plant, it鈥檚 still got that rotting flesh smell,鈥 she said.
