A Corpse Flower -- Bunga Bangkai -- is about to bloom in Sydney for the first time in fifteen years. Live stream.
Last edited Wed Jan 22, 2025, 11:52 PM - Edit history (1)
https://www.botanicgardens.org.au/whats-on/corpse-flower-sydney (CC Licensed) See below.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 about Amorphophallus titanum blooming patterns, the team can now confirm that we are likely to have a stinky inflorescence as of Thursday 23 January!
Where and when can I see it?
You can watch it live online on the Botanic Gardens of Sydney YouTube channel right now.
To visit in person. The plant is on display from 8am until 6pm (weather permitting) everyday from Friday 17 January 2025 in the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney until it starts blooming.
The plant has been confirmed to bloom today (Thursday 23 January) and the display will be open from 8am until midnight.
Livestream: (Youtube)
Attribution
Please give attribution in this form:
© State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) [2025] unless indicated otherwise.
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Our local orchid nursery had a corpse flower bloom last June. The plant grows from a very large bulb, which our nursery had growing in a very large pot. We regulars got to see the flower bud develop over several weeks. I saw the bud the day before it opened and estimate it was about 6 feet tall. The night it opened, I got over there the following afternoon. By that point the stench had diminished considerably and smelled to me like overcooked brussels sprouts. One of nurserymen, who lives in the house across the parking lot from the greenhouses, said the smell was so bad it woke him up during the night. By the afternoon of the next day, the flower was considerably wilted, and by the third day it was a soggy mess.
The single stemmed plant to the right of the flower bud is the vegetative form of the plant. Note the speckles on the 'stem'. It can get quite tall, as much as 20 feet. It is actually a single leaf that at the top spreads out to look like it has 3 branches. This dies back after several years of pumping energy into the bulb, and then the flower bud develops.
Now the flower itself has beautiful coloring on the outside, but the interior is even more beautiful in my estimation. The seeds develop underneath the spathe at the bottom interior of the flower.
This is not the corpse flower I saw but it gives you the idea.
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