Corpse flower as it happened: ‘Putricia’ in full bloom at Sydney’s Botanic Gardens

More than 16,000 people have already visited Putricia since Friday, and the Botanic Gardens will stay open until midnight tonight to accommodate visitors who want to enjoy the stink in all its glory.

You can watch live via the stream below.

The queue at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney has closed with a current wait time of 3½ hours for those remaining. The queue will open again tomorrow at 8am.

It’s been a putrid pleasure bringing you Putricia’s slow but sure opening, and has turned a day of doom and gloom into a day of bloom.

Thank you, and sweet Putricia dreams.

It’s happened! A horticulturalist at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney has told Herald photographer Janie Barrett that Putricia has finally reached her full bloom.

She was able to capture the moment.

Putricia is now fully opened.Credit: Janie Barrett

It is the first time in 15 years that it has bloomed and it will only last 24 hours.Credit: Janie Barrett

A growing girl.Credit: Janie Barrett

Multiple flies are swarming to Putricia’s spathe, a crucial sign of the flower’s pollination.

In the wild, the stench of a corpse flower is meant to attract thousands of flies to pollinate itself.

Flies swarm to Putricia.Credit:

At Botanic Gardens in Sydney, staff will extract pollen during the initial bloom to ensure the pollination occurs.

Still, some flies have found their way to Putricia’s imposing spathe, drawn by its unmistakable scent of decay.

It seems Sydney cannot get enough of Putricia.

The very active Botanic Gardens YouTube livestream has updated its queue time warning from two to 3½ hours.

The stream shows a consistent flow of new crowds posing with Putricia and waving to viewers at home.

As she enters full bloom, patrons can visit Putricia in all her glory until midnight tonight and tomorrow night.

Crowds queue to see Putricia in all her stinky glory.Credit: Botanic Gardens of Sydney

For every anticipated corpse flower bloom there is a lengthy yet luck-driven journey, making Putricia’s short, 24-hour blooming period feel even more fleeting.

For Putricia to become the stinky beauty she is, she must first begin as a tiny bud.

However, the odds are slim. Most buds enter a vegetative phase, growing a leaf that resembles a small tree.

The corpse flower life cycle.Credit: Huntington Botanical Gardens and California Science Centre

When the leaf dies, the bud gets another rare opportunity to flower. After its short bloom, the flower dies and produces fruit over six to 12 months. This fruit becomes a seed, growing into another leaf-like tree that must die before the cycle can begin again.

In essence, Putricia’s bloom is the result of two deaths and two rebirths.

At the Royal Botanic Gardens, multiple buds await their fate. Most will grow into leaves, but a lucky few might become flowers.

From the Herald archives lives the everlasting fascination with the stinky flower Amorphophallus titanum.

“In London’s Kew Gardens in 1996, its titan extravaganza attracted queues reminiscent of a Rafter v Agassi semi-final at Wimbledon,” wrote James Cockington in a 1999 column, right before the flower was to bloom in Sydney.

“In California, scene of the most recent corpse flower freak show, more than 70,000 people came through for a quick sniff.”

Things don’t really change, do they?

“I stink therefore I arum”: The Cockington column on the corpse flower in the Herald in 1999. Credit: Sydney Morning Herald archives

The Botanic Gardens’ chief scientist Brett Summerell has confirmed the gardens will be open until midnight for an additional night, to accommodate the number of people who want to see Putricia.

Addressing the media this afternoon, Summerell, Putricia’s symbolic father, said he and his team were “really overwhelmed by the response of the public and all the media and everyone on social media all over the world, literally, who are interested in this plant and how it’s growing”.

“As you can see, the lines are building and building, we’ll be open ’til midnight tonight and midnight tomorrow night for people to come and have a look at the magnificent plant and learn a little bit about it.”

Putricia has spent its entire life within the parameters of the Botanic Gardens as part of its conservation efforts to protect the species.

Before it was the Sydney icon it was simply a leaf-cutting propagated in 2013.

“So we all love her dearly in the nursery,” horticultural development supervisor Daniella Pasqualini said of Putricia’s rearing.

“She was identified as a flower on December 31, New Year’s Eve, and she grew 1.6 metres in 18 days, so that’s a pretty phenomenal rate, it’s about 10 centimetres a day.”

This is the fifth time a corpse flower has bloomed at the gardens, following events in 2010, 2008, 2004 and twice in 2006.

In 2006 a queue of spectators waited to see the corpse flower just as the public have gathered today. Images shared with the Herald from the gardens show the lines and the corpse flower’s bloom and death.

Putricia has truly gone global – and even Spotify has weighed in on the corpse flower hype. But unlike our WDNRP (We Do Not Rush Putricia) crew, they have a more hasty attitude.

Posted on Instagram with the caption “Any time now queen”, SpotifyAUNZ debuted its playlist dedicated to the stinky bloom.

Don’t rush her, Spotify.Credit: Spotify

Judging by the response from the Botanic Gardens of Sydney – “We do not rush Putricia but she loves the encouragement” – Spotify’s urging of Putricia was not entirely welcome.

With nearly 18,000 saves, the playlist has 50 songs and runs for approximately the same amount of time as the queue: 2 hours and 45 minutes.

“I’ve been watching the live stream since it began,” says Anne, who has two Little Shop of Horrors monster-plants launching off her high heels, and a sensational outfit to boot.

Putricia fan Anne visits the blooming corpse flower in her custom outfits and shoes at the Sydney Botanic Gardens on Thursday. Credit: Angus Dalton

She saw the last corpse flower bloom here 15 years ago.

“It’s so much better this time. Last time didn’t have the atmosphere. She didn’t have a personal fog machine. She didn’t have the gravitas!” Anne said.

She didn’t get too much of a smell – she says she needed a better inhale – but Putricia worked her magic nonetheless.

“There’s just something about Putricia.”