For a week, you have been able to follow a live broadcast where the 1.5 meter tall giant tuber calla at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney slowly emerges.
The fuss about the flower is great in Australia, and thousands have come to see – and smell – it. The last time a giant tuber calla flowered at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney was 15 years ago.
– It smells quite disgusting. Think of the last time you were in a gym with lots of sweaty guys, says a visitor.
– It smells like something is rotting, like socks, says another.
The explanation for the corpse smell
Devoted fans have named the flower Putricia. It is a combination of the name Patricia and the English word “putrid” which means rotten.
The stench helps the flower to attract different types of pollinators in the jungle, for example flies, which normally seek out dead animals.
The giant tuber calla grows on Sumatra in Indonesia, and only blooms every seven to ten years in the wild. It is when the flower blooms that the fragrance is released, but it only blooms for about 24 hours. The species is endangered due to deforestation and soil degradation.
See “Putricia” and hear more about the special fragrance in the clip above.