A rare blooming Corpse Flower - Bunga Bangkai - has bloomed in Sydney
A Corpse Flower - Bunga Bangkai - has bloomed in Sydney for the first time in fifteen years. Check out this very exciting very smelly rare flowering plant emerging at Botanic Gardens. Yes, it took 6 hrs to fully bloom.
Information on plant:
Bunga Bangkai (Indonesian), Titan Arum or Amorphophallus titanum has the biggest, smelliest flower-spike in the world. It flowers for just 24 hours, once every few years.
What is it?
Found only in the rainforests of western Sumatra, the rare and endangered Corpse Flower plant is renowned for the smell of putrid, rotting flesh that surround the flowers when it blooms.
People have described the smell as like wet socks, hot cat food, or rotting possum flesh. But wouldn’t you like to find out for yourself?
What’s happening?
There are several Corpse Flower plants in different stages of growth in the Aroid glasshouse in the nursery. Despite this, blooms are very rare, occurring for just 24 hours every few years. This will be the fifth time a Corpse Flower has bloomed at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, with various plants in our collection previously flowering in 2010, 2008, 2004 and a double bloom in 2006.
A couple of weeks ago, horticulturalists working in the glasshouse noticed the initial clues that one might be entering the flowering stage. Daily measurements and close observation began, and due to vital information sharing from other botanic gardens across the world.
