Rare and Stinky ‘Corpse Flower’ Blooms Draw Thousands of Visitors to Gardens in New York and Sydney
People lined up to see—and smell—the blossoms of two pungent plant species, which only bloom for a short time every few years
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The air was thick with both anticipation and a pungent smell as visitors flocked to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden last weekend for a chance to see a rare flower bloom.
The Amorphophallus gigas—a cousin to Amorphophallus titanum, commonly known as a corpse flower—is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The specimen in Brooklyn, nicknamed “Smelliot” by garden staff, arrived in 2018 as a seedling from Malaysia, according to a statement from the garden. Now almost six feet tall, it’s one of only ten known plants of its species housed at a botanic garden worldwide.
This was Smelliot’s first inflorescence—so called because rather than a single flower, it has hundreds of flowers inside the bloom, explains Chris Sprindis, a gardener at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, to John Minchillo at the Associated Press. And beyond its standout smell, such a bloom is special, because it’s rare: With years between these events, and weeks of anticipation as the plant’s tall spadix grows, the blossoming period only lasts about three days.
The chance to see—and smell—the flower drew New Yorkers outside, despite the cold. “Even while the chills of winter can easily keep me indoors snuggled under a blanket, watching this once-in-a-lifetime flower about to bloom has made me very excited,” visitor Jackie Jackson tells Anna Kodé at the New York Times. “I’ve only seen stories about the corpse flower on TV or online, so to be able to see and smell this in person is a tremendous and exciting opportunity.”
A corpse flower bloomed at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, with some comparing the massive plant to rotten food or stinky cheese. Are you brave enough to take a sniff?https://t.co/00nim7rp1T pic.twitter.com/B8TUALwvSf
— USA TODAY Video (@usatodayvideo) January 27, 2025
The plant smells bad for good reason. The scent of rotting flesh attracts pollinators, like beetles and flies, that lay their eggs in dead animals. “It smells like feet, cheese and rotten meat. It just smelled like the worst possible combination of smells,” visitor Elijah Blades tells the AP. “That was disgusting.”
The short-lived bloom lasted from Friday morning through Sunday, when it collapsed. Another inflorescence won’t occur for a while, adds Sprindis to the AP. “It’s not going to happen next year. It’s going to be several years before it happens again.”
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So far, 2025 seems to be the year of the smelly flower: A bloom of the related species Amorphophallus titanum also recently drew thousands of people to Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden, where a corpse flower hadn’t bloomed for 15 years. A 24/7 livestream of the flower, dubbed “Putricia,” garnered more than one million views.
“Something that occurs this rarely is always a special occasion,” says Brett Summerell, chief scientist at the city’s Royal Botanic Garden, to the Guardian’s Caitlin Cassidy. “It’s spectacular, it’s unique.”
