In the city of Geelong, Australia, south of Melbourne, thousands of people are lining up for a rare opportunity to see and smell the foul odor of a plant that blooms only once every decade.
It is known as the “corpse flower”, or Amorphophallus titanum (often shortened to Titan Arum), due to the stench it emits when it blooms to attract pollinators such as beetles and flies.
The “corpse flower” blooms only once every 10 years and smells like a dead rat.
However, the timing of the bloom is unpredictable. Sometimes it takes a decade for it to bloom, and each blooming lasts only 24 to 48 hours, making it an event that attracts a lot of attention.
This plant was donated to the Geelong Botanic Gardens in 2021 from the State Herbarium in Adelaide, South Australia, and for years, gardeners have been continuously monitoring and waiting for signs of a bud.
After many days of anticipation, the plant began to bloom on November 11. About 5,000 people attended on the first day of the bloom, according to Geelong Park Director Reese McIlvena. Visitors described the smell emitted by the flower as similar to that of a dead rat or a foul-smelling pond.
The botanical garden will remain open until the evening of November 12, when the flower is expected to wilt.
For those who cannot visit in person, the park conducted a live stream of the “corpse flower” – attracting tens of thousands of views from around the world.
Some visitors returned multiple times to see the plant at different blooming stages – from the slow separation of the petals emerging from the base of the flower to the closing around a tall yellow stigma in the center.
“We appreciate the vital role of the Botanic Gardens in showcasing rare and unique plant species,” said Ali Wastie, CEO of Greater Geelong.
“Titan Arum is at risk of extinction, and its conservation is critical due to the declining wild populations.”
This flower species originates from Indonesia and is listed as “endangered” in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) regarding threatened species. The natural habitat of the Sumatra rainforest has been devastated by land degradation and deforestation, with much of the land converted to plantations for timber, paper, or palm oil.
The plant can live for over 30 to 40 years – meaning that it only blooms a few times throughout its entire life cycle. The IUCN estimates that only a few hundred Titan Arum plants remain in the wild.
According to the IUCN, “the corpse flower” is currently legally protected in Indonesia, and dozens of botanical gardens worldwide cultivate this plant to support its conservation, including a botanical garden in California that the public has named Darth Vapor – after the main antagonist character from the “Star Wars” franchise.
