It’s been 15 years since the foul-smelling flower showed its petals in Sydney, but the rare Amorphophallus titanum – also known as a corpse flower – is finally blooming.
The flower, known for its smell of rotting flesh, blooms for about 24 hours, and can take three or four hours to completely unfurl.
As of 2pm, the plant was blossoming at Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, which will remain open until midnight tonight.
Sydneysiders can smell the flower, which has been dubbed by fans as “Putricia”, at the Palm House in the Botanic Gardens.
According to the Botanic Gardens, the smell is similar to that of wet socks, hot cat food, or a rotting possum.
An audience of thousands of people have been watching a livestream of the plant for days in anticipation of the rare bloom.
“If you’ve got some wet teenage socks, throw that into a blender, then you get some cat food you’ve left out in the sun, whack that in your blender, and then get some day-old vomit. Put that in the blender, blend it all up, rip the lid off,” Paul Nicholson, manager of volunteer programs, said of the plant.
“That’s the kind of smell you’re getting.
“It’s actually stunningly beautiful as well.”
After the petals or “spathe” have finished blooming, they will collapse and shrivel.
A single new leaf will emerge from the underground part of the plant, and the plant will continue to grow.
It will be years before the plant flowers again.
The Botanic Gardens will be open until midnight tonight, and open again at 8am tomorrow.
