A corpse flower is pictured blooming in Cairns, Australia, in January 2018. (Mangiwau/Moment RF/Getty Images/ CNN Newsource via CTV News)
In Geelong, a city south of Melbourne, thousands of people are gathering to witness an extraordinary sight and experience a particularly pungent smell. The attraction is the "corpse flower," also known as Amorphophallus Titanum, which has bloomed at the Geelong Botanic Gardens after years of anticipation.
The plant, famous for the foul odor it emits during its rare bloom, draws both fascination and discomfort. Visitors have compared the smell to that of a dead animal, with one person describing it as "rank" while others likened it to a dead possum or a decaying pond. The stench is released to attract pollinators like flies and beetles, though the plant only blooms unpredictably, sometimes once every 10 years. When it does, the bloom lasts for just 24 to 48 hours, making it a much-awaited event.
The Titan Arum was donated to the Geelong Botanic Gardens in 2021 from the State Herbarium in Adelaide. Since then, horticulturists have been watching closely for signs of a bloom. When the plant finally began to open on November 11, it drew an impressive crowd, with about 5,000 people showing up on the first day, according to Reese McIlvena, the city’s Parks Manager.
The garden has been open continuously since the bloom began and will remain so until Tuesday evening when the flower is expected to close. For those unable to visit in person, the garden offers a live stream of the blooming process, which has gained significant attention online, attracting tens of thousands of views from around the world.
The plant’s dramatic bloom involves the unfolding of a frilly leaf around the spadix, a tall yellow column at the center of the flower, which is studded with hundreds of tiny flowers at its base. Some visitors have returned multiple times to witness the flower's progression.
Geelong’s botanic garden, by showcasing this rare event, highlights the importance of preserving endangered species. City of Greater Geelong CEO Ali Wastie emphasized the role of botanic gardens in supporting the conservation of rare plants like the Titan Arum, which is listed as endangered due to habitat loss in its native Indonesia. Deforestation in the Sumatran forest, where the plant originates, has led to a sharp decline in its population, and the IUCN estimates that only a few hundred of these plants remain in the wild.
To support its preservation, the Titan Arum is now legally protected in Indonesia, and several botanic gardens around the world, including one in California that has been humorously named "Darth Vapor" by the public, are helping to grow the plant in controlled environments.
