Crowds gather in Canberra to get a whiff of the Corpse flower

Canberra's corpse flower is the latest stinking blossom to draw a crowd, with the national botanic gardens prepared for a long day ahead.

Transcript

00:00Well, catch a whiff of this.

00:04Move over Patricia and Patricia's sister in Sydney because we have our very own corpse

00:08flower blooming here in the nation's capital for the very first time.

00:12We've come on a good day today because it smells more like mouldy laundry, I'm told,

00:16as opposed to the smell of a dead rat as it did yesterday.

00:19But to hear more, we're joined by Acting Nursery Manager, Carol.

00:22Carol, tell us, how much harder is it to grow these plants here in the capital?

00:26It's really challenging to grow these plants here in Canberra.

00:29It gets very cold in the Canberra winter, down to minus 9, and these plants like a daytime

00:34temperature of around 30 degrees, which we maintain year-round, with high humidity as

00:38well, which is quite challenging, but we're able to maintain great conditions.

00:42We didn't think we had the right conditions to get this plant to flower stage, but we're

00:47really confident now that we do have the right conditions, and we also have the right conditions

00:51to grow our native Amorphophallus species, the Amorphophallus pianifolius and the Amorphophallus

00:56galbra, and we're really hoping that we can get them to flower stage now and bring them

01:00to the public as well.

01:01And with those conditions in mind, is it a bit of a coincidence that three have bloomed

01:05at once?

01:06It is.

01:07We all have our Amorphophallus titanums in slightly different conditions around the country.

01:12We're also located in different areas with different staff looking after them.

01:15It is a big coincidence that they're all blooming at the same time at the moment.

01:19There are several thoughts about why that's happening, and it could be because the plants

01:23are all around about the same age, or it could be because the conservation program

01:27really ramped up around that 15-year-ago mark, so there's a lot more awareness about these

01:31plants, and we're hoping that we can get it to bloom again and not wait another 15 years.

01:37And unfortunately, this plant doesn't yet have a name, but are there any names on the

01:40list yet?

01:41There's a lot of names flying around on social media, and I heard some more on the radio

01:45this morning.

01:46I think everything happened so fast for us.

01:49This bloomed a lot quicker than we expected it to, so we're really hoping that we can

01:53put the call out and maybe have a name before it blooms again.

01:55Well, there you have it.

01:57It's been flowering since 1.30pm on Saturday.

02:00Just over 100 lucky people will be allowed to come in here today and view the corpse

02:04flower before it does go dormant.