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Visitors seen taking photos of the Corpse Flower's blossom at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. One of the biggest and smelliest flowers in the world blooms at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney in Australia on January 23, 2025. It last bloomed in Sydney in 2010. George Chan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesShareToday, its not a tree thats growing in Brooklyn. Instead, the petals of a rare type of corpse flower have officially opened up at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The putrid smelling Amorphophallus gigas is related to the more common Amorphophallus titanum. A. gigas might be a little less dramatic in appearance than its relative, but its flower heador inflorescencecan be even taller and produce the same signature smell of rotting flesh.It is not as large as an Amorphophallus titanum bloom, but its uniquely tall inflorescence is a significantly more rare occurrence, Brooklyn Botanic Garden gardener Chris Sprindis said in a statement. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.According to Botanic Gardens Conservation International, only nine other botanic gardens have an A. gigas in their collections. The plant arrived in Brooklyn from Malaysia in 2018 and this is the first time it is blooming, but it will not last long.Across the globe in Australia, a Amorphophallus titanum corpse flower nicknamed Putricia has been blooming for the past week at the Royal Sydney Botanic Garden. This is the first time in 15 years that one of these flowers has bloomed in Sydney and over 20,000 people have stopped in to take a whiff.Here are some things to know about these uniquely odorous flora.Why do they stink?Corpse flowers smell bad as a way to attract pollinators that are drawn to the scent of rotting flesh. Think flies buzzing over an animal carcass. Attracting pollinators is essential for any plants survival, so they often use their flowers as reproductive tools.According to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Florida, Expecting a tasty rotten treat, these insects flock to the smell/ The non-flyers crawl into the flower and are temporarily trapped by steep walls and slippery ridges. As they skitter around the bottom of the flower, pollen falls onto them from the upper portion of the flower. Luckily for the bugs, the blooms are very short-lived, collapsing after only a few days and releasing the insects to carry their load of pollen on to the next smelly destination.Several chemical compounds contribute to this smell. Sufides are the key odorant. Dimethyl trisulfide gives the flower its rotting animal-like sulfury odor. Dimethyl disulfide is a lesser, but still present smell like garlic. Additionally, a chemical found in sweaty feet called isovaleric acid and compound that smells like a mix of garlic and cheese called methyl thiolacetate are also present. The last scent to hit your nose before the flowering structure collapses after a few days is trimethylamine. This compound smells like dead fish.How big are corpse flowers?Amorphophallus titanum has the largest known unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom. The bloom can grow up to eight feet tall, according to the United States Botanical Garden with some individual plants reaching heights of 12 feet.Why do their flowers disappear so quickly?Generally, corpse flowers can take about seven to nine years to bloom. Some will only bloom once every few decades. They also do not have an annual blooming cycle like many other plants, and will only bloom when it has enough energy to do so.The corpse flower stores its energy in a swollen base at the stemcalled a cormthat weighs about 100 pounds. Corpse flowers have the largest known corm in the plant kingdom. If it is a non-flowering year, one leaf about the size of a small tree will shoot from the corm. The leaf will then branch out into three sections, with each part growing more leaflets. After several years, the plant will finally gather enough energy needed to bloom. The bloom can then only be held for about 24 to 36 hours before collapsing.Left to right: A. gigas emerging on January 3, growing on January 18, and beginning to unfurl on January 23. CREDIT: Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Where are corpse flowers found in the wild?Like in botanical gardens, corpse flowers are rare in nature as well. They are a tropical plant found in the equatorial rainforests of Sumatra, in Indonesia. Indonesians call it Bunga Bangkai, which translates to corpse flower.Amorphophallus titanum is listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Some botanists estimate that there are fewer than 1,000 individual plants in the wild. The IUCN also estimates that the population has decreased by more than half over the past 150 years. Logging and turning the plants habitat into land for palm oil plantations are believed to be the reasons behind the decline.Are they dangerous to more than just our nostrils?According to the Chicago Botanic Garden, each corpse flower can produce over 400 fruits with two seeds. The fruits will go from a gold color to a rich crimson. They are fully ripe about six months after pollination.However, dont eat them. Their fruit is poisonous to humans. Large, orange-beaked birds called the rhinoceros hornbill typically eat the fruit and disperse the seeds.
