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“It smells like feet, cheese and rotten meat. It just smelled
like the worst possible combination of smells,” Elijah Blades
said. “That was disgusting.”
The rare Amorphophallus gigas — a relative of the Amorphophallus
titanum, commonly known as the corpse flower — has bloomed for
the first time since arriving in Brooklyn in 2018. Native to
Sumatra, the plant is known for its height and carrion scent,
which it uses to attract pollinators.
It has hundreds of flowers, both male and female, inside the
bloom, and it can take years between blooming events, said
gardener Chris Sprindis, who first noticed the inflorescence, or
cluster of flowers, around New Year’s Eve. The bloom will last
only a few days before it collapses.
“So this is the first time it’s happened here,” Sprindis said.
“It’s not going to happen next year. It’s going to be several
years before it happens again.”
The plant is in very few other botanical gardens worldwide, but
there was a similar scene this week on the other side of the
globe at a greenhouse in Sydney as thousands waited in
three-hour lines to experience the fragrance emanating from a
blooming Amorphophallus titanum, evoking gym socks and rotting
garbage.
It was the first time in 15 years that a corpse flower has
bloomed at the Royal Sydney Botanic Garden. That plant's flower
was also spotted in December, when it was 10 inches (25
centimeters) high, and by Thursday it was more than 5 feet (1.6
meters) tall.
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