A giant stinky flower drawing attention across Sydney has officially started to bloom, beginning to emit its infamous foul odour of decay for 24 hours only.
Putricia, as the corpse flower has been nicknamed, blossomed at the Royal Botanic Garden on Thursday after first showing signs about a week and a half ago.
Otherwise known as the Bunga Bangkai, Titan Arum or Amorphophallus titanum, the plant has the biggest, smelliest flower spike in the world and only flowers once every few years.
Corpse flowers are rare and endangered and usually found in the West Sumatran rainforests, with estimates that there are less than 1,000 specimens left in the wild.
Putricia the corpse flower at Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. (Supplied: Royal Botanic Garden Sydney)
They thrive in shady, moist and warm conditions at about 22 degrees Celsius and 75 per cent humidity.
Their inflorescence are unpredictable and known for smelling like rotting flesh, wet socks or hot cat food due to its sulphur-based and putrescrine odorants, the gardens said.
The flower blooms when the spike in the centre, known as the spadix, experiences a growth spurt which prompts the spathe, or the skirt around the spadix, to open.
The corpse flower being measured on Tuesday. (Supplied)
Once the spathe unravels, the putrid smell begins.
Putricia was measured daily after horticulturalists anticipated it had entered the flowering stage and was expected to flower by Monday. Come Tuesday, it stood at 1.62 metres.
It is the fifth corpse flower to bloom at the gardens, following predecessors in 2010, 2008, 2004 and a double bloom in 2006.
Once Putricia begins to open it will take three to six hours to fully unfurl.
Putricia could produce ‘400 babies’
The plant has drawn a steady flow of viewers on a 24/7 livestream titled A Plant to Die For and has been open to the public since Friday.
So far, Putricia has drawn crowds of more than 5,000 and more than 200,000 have tuned to watch it online.
A spokesperson for the botanic gardens said the team was “thrilled (and quite overwhelmed) by Putricia’s fame”.
“We love that you love her, and we love that this is getting people into botany and horticulture,” they said.
Horticulture and living collections director John Siemon said after Putricia flowers, a new single leaf would eventually be produced from the underground corm, or bulbo tuber, and the plant will continue to grow.
“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,” he said.
Putricia was also sniff-checked for more signs of flowering.
Mr Siemon added that once its flower opens, the gardens would explore pollination.
“We have sourced some fresh pollen from a recent Australian flowering and we intend to pollinate her female reproductive organs at the first opportunity,” he said.
“If we achieve a successful pollination Putricia may have up to 400 babies. We would see to distribute these to other conservation agencies that can benefit with new genetic diversity.”
In the wild, blowflies or beetles “find the stench attractive” and act as natural pollinators, but in the greenhouse, pollen is scraped from male flowers and shipped from other botanic gardens, he said.
Royal Botanic Garden Sydney in the city centre will remain open until midnight to allow people to see Putricia in the flesh.
