Time is a fickle thing for a queen in the plant world. Just ask Putricia, the five-foot-tall corpse flower that reigns at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney. Putricia has made her adoring fans wait for a chance to see her bloom for more than 15 years.
Though corpse flowers are quite a sight when their spathe, or colorful leaf-like structure, opens up, many of Patricia’s devotees were more interested in another aspect of her blooming. Specifically, they wanted to take a deep whiff of her rotting, putrid smell.
Amorphophallus Titanum
Known scientifically as amorphophallus titanum, which is Latin for “giant, misshapen penis,” the corpse flower is native to the rainforests in Sumatra, Indonesia. According to the United States Botanical Garden, the flower was first discovered in 1878.
Besides its horrible scent and eye-catching name—though I can kind of see where they were coming from—the corpse flower’s charm comes from its size and fleeting presence. This flower is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom, growing up to 8 feet tall in captivity and up to 12 feet tall in its natural habitat.
It also only blooms for between 2-3 days and often takes years to work up to it. This is because the corpse flower’s bloom emerges from an underground stem called a “corm.” The plant stores energy in the corm and will only bloom when it has enough accumulated. Maintaining a corpse flower requires special conditions, including day and night temperatures and high humidity.
What Does a Corpse Flower Smell Like?
To put it simply: not good. The most common description compares the smell of amorphophallus titanum to rotting flesh, though there are some that have compared to rotting garbage, gym socks, and smelly laundry.
Ari Novy, the president of the San Diego Botanic Garden, put it a different way in an interview with NPR in 2023.
“The way I describe it is it smells like if you took your teenager's dirty laundry and you put it in a big black garbage bag, and then you added in some hamburger meat, maybe some fish, a little garlic and some parmesan cheese,” Novy said. “And you left that by the side of the road on a very hot desert day for about 24 hours. And then you came back to it. That's not even exaggerating.”
Why Does It Smell This Way?
While many wouldn’t get near the corpse flower with a 10-foot pole after reading that description, it turns out that there are many insects in nature that go wild for the stench. Furthermore, the plant’s inflorescence—the collection of flowers acting as one—produces heat, allowing the stinky perfume to travel further.
“There are insects out there that really like the smell of rotting flesh or other fetid or rotting odors. And those insects can pollinate plants,” Novy said. “There are several plants that utilize this strategy of using rotting flesh odors that humans find repulsive to attract a bunch of insects who actually love that smell.”
Some of these insects include carrion beetles and flies, which will travel long distances to reach amorphophallus titanum when it starts blooming.
Putricia’s Big Moment
Given their rarity, corpse flower blooms are a big deal for plant enthusiasts. It’s kind of like the Super Bowl, but without the same frequency. Putricia’s big moment was no different.
Thousands lined up to witness and smell Putricia when she finally bloomed, though no one knew exactly when it would happen. Officials with the Botanic Gardens of Sydney told the Associated Press that it welcomed roughly 20,000 admirers who came to bask in the plant’s presence for a moment. Visitors walked a red carpet to see their queen, who sat imperviously on a raised dais behind red velvet ropes.
The organization also set up a livestream for people to watch online. The livestream lasted for eight days straight and received 1.7 million views. And now for the big question: What about the smell?
“I am sickened,” Angus Dalton, a science reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald who attended the event, said. “I am in awe.”
After the Bloom
No good thing lasts forever, including Putricia’s moment of glory. The flowering structure on corpse flowers tend to last three days or less. After that, the spadix (the fleshy spike) and the spadix collapse.
But that doesn’t mark the end of the corpse flower. It doesn’t die. If the plant is pollinated, which it was in this case, it will produce orange fruit at the base of what’s left of the spadix. Then, it will produce a single leaf from its corm and start the process of growing again.
“However, so much energy has been expended on flowering and fruiting that it may be years before the plant has enough stored energy to flower again,” the Botanic Gardens of Sydney explained.
A Shared Moment
While brief, Putricia’s bloom created a shared moment of joy for plant enthusiasts both in-person and online. It even led to the creation of new acronyms, like WWTF (We Watch the Flower); WDNRP (We Do Not Rush Putricia); and BBTB (Blessed Be the Bloom)
“Putricia we love you girl,” a user named Sandra E said during the YouTube livestream. “Thank you for being a lord and reminding people to be silly and touch grass.
Furthermore, it’s also a reminder of the role nature plays in our lives and the importance of conservation. The corpse flower is an endangered species. Experts estimate that there are fewer than 1,000 individual plants remaining in the wild and blame its decline on logging and the conversion of the plant’s natural habitat to oil palm plantations.
As such, if we want to keep plants like corpse flower around, we should probably consider treating them like royalty indefinitely, not just when they bloom every few years.
Images | United States Botanical Garden | Xataka On | Allison Meier | Dave Pape
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