6mo ago

Corpse flower blooms at Canberra's Australian National Botanic Gardens for the first time

www.abc.net.au

'Smells like dead rat': Corpse flower blooms in Canberra after 15-year wait

An Amorphophallus titanum or titan arum, commonly known as the corpse flower, has bloomed at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra for the first time.

The 15-year-old plant started unfurling its 135 centimetre-tall flower spike on Saturday afternoon, emanating a putrid stench described by some as smelling like "dead rat".

The bloom is expected to start collapsing by Monday afternoon and will gradually return to a dormant state as an underground corm.

6 comments

I didn't realise the Botanic Gardens had one of these, wonder if now they know it's viable they'll put it in a more public area (given how much interest that one in Sydney gets each time it pops out).
- Went to see it today. Had to book free tickets but it was accessible.
  
  Sounds like there was quite a few people after the tickets given the article says all 990 tickets got snapped up in less than 24 hours, I'm impressed that that many people both knew it was happening and were enthusiastic enough to head out to see it (guessing the gardens sent out an email about it and social media posts etc).
  Was the smell as powerful as these articles always say it is?
Some interesting tidbits from one of the staff.
The actual flowers are hidden down in the base of the opening and it has both male and female flowers but cannot self pollinate.
They didn't want to pollinate this one as they were worried the plant was not strong enough. But they will keep pollen from the male flowers to give to other gardens.
They had a bunch of Australian native relatives of this plant there too. They have a similar life cycle but are much smaller.
Rather fascinating plants. I can only wonder what makes them all want to flower at a similar time after years of dormancy.

6 comments