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.’
Category
📺
TVTranscript
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.