\u201cAustralia has one of the highest flowering events in the world,\u201d said Matt Coulter, senior horticulture curator at the Botanic Gardens of South Australia<\/a>. The country was among the top three places for the number of corpse flowers blooming, he said, with plants coming to an age where they were likely to flower more often.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Adelaide, known for its hot, dry summers, has become an unlikely capital for propagating these endangered plants from the equatorial rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia.<\/p>\n There, Smellanie, one of three original plants grown from seeds acquired in 2006, had just finished its second flowering. Coulter has propagated many more from both leaf cuttings and pollination. The state\u2019s corpse flower collection now holds in excess of 250 plants across different generations \u2013 the largest in Australia, and possibly the world.<\/p>\n Smellanie \u201cturned out to be a perfect flower\u201d, he said, with a deep crimson outer layer and powerful stench. At 2.13m tall it was the largest the garden had shown to the public \u2013 its aroma reminiscent of \u201cfermenting cabbage\u201d, \u201cstrong blue cheese\u201d or \u201cold sweaty socks\u201d.<\/p>\n Corpse flowers are notoriously unpredictable. Most plants take 10-12 years to be able to produce their first flower, he said. Afterwards they could flower at intervals of three to five years, although in some cases it could be longer.<\/p>\n There were no guarantees. In order to produce their extravagant display, corpse plants needed to store up enough energy in underground tubers, or \u201ccorms\u201d which could grow up to 75kg. When there\u2019s a bud, you never know if it will be a leaf or a flower until it\u2019s about 10-15 cm long, Coulter said. Even then, he was aware of incidents where the tuber hadn\u2019t been strong enough to enable the flower to open.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not an easy plant to grow because at certain times of the year they need lots of water and lots of nutrition. Other times of year they just need to rest and have nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n After its first flower in 2015, Adelaide now has corpse flowers blossoming every year, but not all are placed on public display. Transporting these precious plants from their climate-controlled glasshouse to the Adelaide botanic gardens was \u201cquite a stressful event for the plant\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Putricia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5693.jpg\")
Putricia the corpse flower: would you wait 3.5 hours to smell a rotten carcass? – video<\/p>\n
![\"'A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1551.jpg\")
‘A horrific smell’: Geelong’s corpse flower blooms \u2013 video<\/p>\n