9 Jun 2015

Smelly flower set to assault the senses

4:34 pm on 9 June 2015

A rare flower which stinks of rotting flesh and is known as the corpse flower is about to bloom at Auckland's Wintergardens.

The corpse flower when it bloomed in 2013.

The corpse flower when it bloomed in 2013. Photo: Auckland Council

The flower is one of world's largest and can reach a height of three metres.

Wintergarden spokesperson David Millward said it bloomed in 2013 and was opening unusually early - almost 500 days before it was expected to.

He said the flower cycle of the plant was typically every 1000 days in the wild.

Mr Millward said it attracted up to 7000 visitors a day last time it bloomed.

"The size of it, the smell, the male-female part, the way it comes from a corm underground, the way it can have just a leaf or a flower but never both at the same time just makes it a real oddity, which we love."

The flower was expected to fully open before Saturday, he said.

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