The foul-smelling Corpse Flower opened its limited but stinky bloom on Saturday evening.
The endangered Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum), known as the Corpse Flower has opened and began sharing its rotting flesh-like scent.
For two days from first bloom the plant pulses out its notoriously foul-smelling aroma in a bid to attract pollinators, with the strongest smell in the first 24 hours.
Botanic Garden and State Herbarium (BGSH) horticultural curator, Matt Coulter, said the plant, which currently measures over 1.5 metres tall, will flower for the first time in nearly 10 years and is slightly smaller than previous blooms.
The inflorescence bloom lasts approximately 48 hours before the large yellow spadix begins to collapse.
Once collapsed, it can take around three to five years before a Titan Arum plant can produce another eye-catching inflorescence.
The Corpse Flower is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra and is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, with fewer than 1000 left in the wild.
Rainforest deforestation to make way for unsustainable palm oil and palm oil alternative plantations has seen numbers of the Titan Arum rapidly decrease in the wild, and BGSH is part of a global effort to conserve the species.
Adelaide Botanic Garden invites visitors to see, and smell, the Corpse Flower, which can be found in the Bicentennial Conservatory, today until 9pm (last entry – 8:30pm).
Visitors are asked to queue at the northern entrance to the Bicentennial Conservatory, closest to Plane Tree Drive.
