The National Botanic Garden in Belgium has a new attraction which invites locals and tourists despite its reputation of being the smelliest flower in the world. It literally smells like where it got its name—corpse flower.
The Titan Arum, commonly known as corpse flower, is the world’s largest flower that has a complicated arrangement of branches. It can easily be distinguished among other plants because of its odor which reminds visitors of a corpse. Though it naturally but rarely blooms in rainforests and limestone hills, this flower is often found in botanic gardens and private collectors’ gardens.
The National Botanic Garden in Brussels is one of the world’s largest botanical gardens famous for its extensive collection of plants of about 18,000 plant species. The corpse flower was said to have bloomed only thrice since it was planted in the garden in 2008.
The corpse flower stands at 8-feet now and may weigh up to 200 pounds but botanists expect it to die on Wednesday. Therefore, visitors may see it for only two or three days before it develops a fruit and die on its own.
While the scent of this flower is not that flattering for humans, insects and other organisms were attracted to it. Some people described the scent as similar to rotten eggs, fish, meat, and cheese. The weird scent is caused by the plant’s sulfur compounds.
Those who had witnessed its bloom may consider the experience a once-in-a-lifetime treat as this flower rarely do so with only 150 recorded blooming since its discovery in Sumatra, Indonesia by an Italian botanist named Dr Odoardo Beccari in 1878.
The corpse plan is considered an endangered plant because of its rare blooming cycles plus human activities that affects its natural habitat. There were no numbers accounted which can tell how many of this flower is still left in the world.
