Australian collections of the endangered and notoriously unpredictable flowers have popped off in recent years, as ‘personas’ like Putricia, Stinkerella and Smellanie prove a hit with nosy spectators
From little things glorious fetid things grow. Corpse flower blooms, once vanishingly rare, are becoming more commonplace in Australia.
More than a dozen bloomed across the country in 2025, including the infamous Putricia in Sydney, Morpheus in Canberra, Big Betty in Cooktown, and Spud and co in Cairns. But with plants kept in gardens across the country, and blooming more frequently after their first flower, you could catch a whiff of one soon.
“Australia has one of the highest flowering events in the world,” said Matt Coulter, senior horticulture curator at the Botanic Gardens of South Australia. The country was among the top three places for the number of corpse flowers blooming, he said, with plants coming to an age where they were likely to flower more often.
Adelaide, known for its hot, dry summers, has become an unlikely capital for propagating these endangered plants from the equatorial rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia.
