‘Putricia’ the putrid corpse flower at Sydney Botanic Garden basks in internet fame

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Sydney's blooming corpse flower in the city's Botanic Gardens is still holding people's attention. Thousands are lining up to catch a glimpse and a whiff of the stinky flower popularly known as ‘Putricia.’

Transcript

00:00Well, there's no doubt, Petricia, the corpse flower that is blooming in Sydney at the Royal

00:07Botanic Gardens has captured the imagination of Sydneysiders.

00:11Indeed, even on a viral live stream of this plant, it has absolutely drawn in viewers

00:17from all over the world.

00:18In excess of a million people have been on the live stream at one point or another.

00:23And essentially what's happening right now is you have these massive queues of thousands

00:26of people that have queued up literally for hours to come through and they go and they

00:31get this chance, as you might be able to see here, to actually take photos, get their little

00:35moment.

00:36But it all runs very briefly and then they have to go on, much like the blooming period

00:42of this iconic plant.

00:44We spoke to a few people about why they've come here today.

00:48We've been hyping this up all week.

00:50We even have friends overseas that are tuning in just to see us on the live stream.

00:54So we thought we have to make it something really special for them.

00:57Saw the live stream last night and yeah, I think it'd be pretty good to come check it out.

01:02I think it's a testament to the amount of effort and care that they've put into it.

01:05And in a way, it's really wholesome to see so many people coming to see something that

01:09has taken so long and so many people's care to actually achieve.

01:13It's more than we ever could have imagined.

01:16Like this is chaotic and we're all suddenly, you know, in the spotlight.

01:21The corpse flower, also known by its scientific name as Amorphophallus titanum, is an exceedingly

01:26rare bloomer.

01:28In the context of the Sydney climate, it can happen as rare as every 12 years.

01:32But here at the Botanic Gardens, it's the first time in 15 years it's hosted a blooming

01:37flower.

01:38It's drawn in many people, but it's also drawn attention to the perilous state of the flower,

01:43which is endangered and native to West Sumatra.

01:47There's only 300 of these plants left in the wild, and conservationists hope the viral

01:51moment that's occurring right here, right now, will see more attention paid to its conservation.

01:57Indeed, already online, people have used iconic monikers such as Blessed Be the Bloom.

02:03As the flower wilts, it's expected that basically the show will more or less wrap up by the

02:08end of tonight, thousands more expected still to come.

02:12And then the wait is on for the next putricia, or whatever the corpse flower may end up being

02:18called, comes out at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Category

Transcript

Recommended