US: Sumatra's 'corpse plant' brings large crowds to California's San Diego Garden

People often plan tours of botanical gardens to get glimpses of rare species of plants, and for plant lovers, a botanical garden based in Southern California has some bizarre flora that attracts thousands of tourists every day.

Among its collection of plants is a giant and stinky Sumatran flower, often called the "corpse plant", the Associated Press reported.  The plant that gets its nickname from smelling like a dead body is drawing huge crowds to Southern California's San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas. Citing the San Diego Union-Tribune, AP reported that the bloom of the Amorphophallus titanum plant began on Sunday afternoon at the San Diego Botanic Garden.

By Monday morning, a large crowd gathered near the garden to get a glimpse of the "corpse plant" and, within hours the entry tickets had sold out. According to botanical garden officials, more than 5,000 people visited the garden on Tuesday evening.
John Connors, horticulture manager for the San Diego Botanic Gardens, said the bloom of the “corpse plant” lasts just 48 hours and during its peak, it emits a putrid odour of rotting flesh to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies that help its pollination process.
"The blooming flower’s rotting corpse smell that was so thick and heavy you could cut it with a knife," the horticulture manager quipped. 

US botanical garden starts live streaming

It is worth mentioning this is not the only garden housing a 'corpse plant'. The Sumatran at a botanical garden in Warsaw is also blooming like a rotten dead body. The odour of the plant is so strong that people are not even daring to visit the garden.

As fewer people are visiting the garden, the management has started a live stream of the "strange plant". However, some people are brave enough to take a risk and visit the garden and click selfies with the flower, said the garden officials. According to John Connors, Amorphophallus titanum has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The inflorescence of the talipot palm, Corypha umbraculifera, is larger, but it is branched rather than unbranched. Amorphophallus titanum is endemic to Sumatra.

(With inputs from AP, Image: AP/Pixabay)