0:00

What did rotting fish, cat

0:02

food and wet socks have

0:04

in common? Well, they've all

0:06

been used to describe the

0:09

striking stench of a rare

0:11

and endangered flower, known as

0:13

bongabankai, titam arem, or amorphalis

0:15

titanium. Hello,

0:20

I'm Beck Davis and welcome to

0:22

this special bonus episode of Branch

0:24

Out. In case you haven't heard,

0:27

we have some blooming big news.

0:29

One of the biggest and smelliest

0:31

flowers in the world is about

0:34

to bloom at the Royal Botanic

0:36

Garden, Sydney. found only in the

0:38

rainforests of western Samatra. Corpse flowers

0:41

emerge for just 24 hours once

0:43

every few years. During this time

0:45

it gives off a scent likeen

0:48

to death or rotting flesh, hence

0:50

the nickname. It's a rare

0:52

botanical spectacle to die for. In

0:59

today's episode, I'm taking you behind

1:01

the scenes with curator manager Jared

1:03

Kelly. Jared, we're here in the

1:05

Arroy Glass House at the Royal

1:07

Botanic Garden, Sydney, where our botanical

1:09

superstar was nurtured by your team

1:11

before taking center stage at the

1:13

Palm House for public viewing. To

1:15

start off, tell me about the

1:17

delicate operation to move such a

1:19

large and precious plant. Thanks Beck. So,

1:22

so much goes into moving such a precious

1:24

plant. Firstly... we had to determine where we

1:26

were actually moving it too. So there was

1:28

a bit involved in, yeah, trying to work

1:30

that out, trying to see what's possible from

1:33

our perspective in terms of moving such a

1:35

big heavy plant. It does weigh quite a

1:37

bit. It's relatively unstable too. You probably won't

1:39

realize that, but if you move that pot,

1:42

there's a lot of weight in the

1:44

top of that plant. It's quite fragile

1:46

at the base. So we were very

1:48

concerned the fact that it could actually

1:50

break. at any point. So we did

1:52

everything that we could to make sure

1:54

the process in determining how to move

1:56

it without it moving, if that

1:58

makes sense. So we did a couple

2:00

of dry runs with the team as

2:02

to we had a pot for soil

2:04

with a corn with no leaf or

2:07

flower growth on it and then we

2:09

ran through the path in which we

2:11

were going to take and we did

2:13

that to make sure that we're comfortable

2:15

that we could safely move the plant

2:17

into position. Once we were satisfied we

2:19

gave the real thing a go and

2:21

thankfully everything went very well. And how

2:23

far are we talking, what's the rough

2:25

distance between the glass house and the

2:27

palm house? Good question, it's a couple

2:29

hundred meters. So to get it out

2:31

of the glasshouse, that was a challenge.

2:33

There's a bit of a drop-off at

2:35

the back of the glasshouse, which is

2:37

challenging when you're moving such a large

2:40

pot that you don't want it to

2:42

move. So once we worked out how

2:44

to do that, it was getting it

2:46

on the back of what we call

2:48

a buggy here at the gardens, like

2:50

a golf cart with a trailer. We

2:52

got it into that, and then it

2:54

was a matter of people walking alongside,

2:56

holding alongside, holding on. very slowly, slower

2:58

than a walking pace to make sure

3:00

that any bumps, anything like that didn't

3:02

move the plan around. So very delicate,

3:04

very slow, but important. Was it nerve-wracking?

3:06

What was it like watching this unfold?

3:08

Yeah, well, um... a few sleepless nights

3:11

just leading up to it I think

3:13

for everyone involved very nerve-wracking I can't

3:15

say I was here during the actual

3:17

move so my supervisor Daniel led that

3:19

operation and she did an amazing job

3:21

and the team involved too everyone was

3:23

very nervous but everyone was super excited

3:25

once we got through that and now

3:27

we're all just watching and waiting for

3:29

the big moment what's the latest prediction

3:31

yeah so based on our observations we're

3:33

we're really predicting now probably Sunday to

3:35

Monday to Monday with the weather that's

3:37

happening in the Sydney, not that it's

3:39

whether relied in the sense that it's

3:41

in a controlled house to some degree,

3:44

the cloud cover, and it is cooling

3:46

off in that. We don't have the

3:48

ability to raise the temperatures up to

3:50

where we'd like to. So it seems

3:52

like it's sitting there waiting patiently, pushing

3:54

it back to about Sunday or Monday.

3:56

Probably a good thing with all this

3:58

wind at the moment. We're standing amongst...

4:00

are the corpse flower plants in different

4:02

stages of growth but this is the

4:04

first time one is actually bloomed in

4:06

15 years. Why is that? Yeah another

4:08

great question so our original batch if

4:10

you like of a more foulest titanium

4:12

so we had a lot of success

4:15

with that early on and then we

4:17

ran into some issues so out of

4:19

that batch we had a number of

4:21

fusarium and nematode issues which essentially killed

4:23

off that collection. We did a lot

4:25

of research, a lot of reaching out

4:27

to other Botanic Gardens troubleshooting to get

4:29

to a point where we were confident

4:31

that we could grow them again with

4:34

the infrastructure that we have and the

4:36

climatic conditions and the control. So in

4:38

doing that we reached out to

4:40

Mount Lofti Botanic Gardens. Fortunately they

4:42

had material available which was... the same material

4:44

that we had in terms of

4:46

genetics. It all came from Baccatingi

4:48

in Sumatra, Indonesia. So they were

4:50

kind enough to share that material

4:52

with us. So we received that

4:54

in 2020. It was propagated by

4:57

them in 2018. And so now

4:59

we're starting to see that batch come

5:01

through and flower. And with any luck,

5:03

we have a second one on the

5:05

way, potentially. That's very exciting news.

5:07

What were the first clues that

5:09

you and your team noticed that

5:11

we may have one? finally entering

5:13

that flowering stage. Generally when they

5:15

go from leaf, then they go into

5:17

their, they die down and go into

5:19

their dormant stage. We weigh the corms,

5:21

so we get a pretty good idea

5:23

of how they're tracking, so the corms

5:25

will continue to put on size, which

5:27

when they get to a certain size,

5:29

and it varies quite a lot, so

5:31

it's hard to say, we know we're

5:33

getting closer, so based on years, based

5:35

on size, and how that's progressing, it

5:37

gives us a pretty good idea that

5:39

we're getting close that we're getting close.

5:41

put out a new leaf or flower, they

5:44

both look identical at the

5:46

start. It's extremely difficult to

5:48

tell. As it grows, what you can see

5:50

some key giveaways is at the base

5:52

where it meets the soil level. When

5:55

it's a flower, it actually curves inwards

5:57

ever so slightly at the base. Leaf

5:59

shoots... it's straight if not flared slightly.

6:01

So that's the first giveaway. And then

6:03

ultimately you just have to let it

6:06

grow. And then as it grows and

6:08

the protective bracts around it start to

6:10

fall off and it emerges and you

6:12

can see exactly what's going on. So

6:14

for us it does take a little

6:16

bit of time to determine what it

6:18

is. Is it leaf? Is it flower?

6:20

Everyone likes to play a bit of

6:22

a guessing game and sometimes it is

6:24

just that. And it's still a guessing

6:27

game without second one you mentioned. Yeah

6:29

I'm pretty certain that's a flower. And

6:31

tell me more about the corpse flower

6:33

plant. Why do they smell so bad

6:35

when other flowers smell so lovely? Yeah

6:37

so it smells bad because it has

6:39

to. It's adapted that way. It has

6:41

to draw in pollinators for its own

6:43

survival and ultimately success. So that is

6:46

why it smells bad the environment in

6:48

which it comes from. The insects the

6:50

pollinators they are attracted to that and

6:52

it's a competitive rainforest. So when you

6:54

consider all those things it's it's no

6:56

surprise really why it smells bad and

6:58

it's evolved that way. Look I'd say

7:00

it's unfortunate but it's kind of interesting.

7:02

Very interesting. How strong will the smell

7:04

be? I've heard your team has to

7:07

take some health and safety precautions to

7:09

cope while working so closely with that

7:11

foul stench. It's it's strong. Look I

7:13

have not smelled it personally myself but

7:15

from all accounts it's it's fairly strong

7:17

and particularly when the flower first opens.

7:19

So that is when it's receptive for

7:21

pollination. You know we jokingly we joke

7:23

about the fact that we might need

7:26

to take some smelly salts with us

7:28

or a bit of perfume on the

7:30

the wrist just to have a bit

7:32

of a sniff of that every now

7:34

and then to get a fresher breath

7:36

of air. And the rivalry between Sydney

7:38

and Melbourne runs deep and this is

7:40

probably about to feel that given we've

7:42

had two corpse flowers recently blew in

7:44

Melbourne and actually just one in Cooktown

7:47

today as we're recording but this is

7:49

actually the fifth time it's happened here

7:51

in Sydney. Can you tell me about

7:53

the previous blooms and why have so

7:55

many appeared to be flowering in a

7:57

relatively close succession? Yeah,

8:00

the previous bloom, so we've had

8:02

them in 2002, 2004, 2006, 7,

8:04

and 8, and then after that

8:07

we had that lull period of

8:09

where we had some challenges. I

8:11

would say that we're experiencing... multiple

8:14

blooms this year, purely based on

8:16

plant material exchange and distribution amongst

8:18

Botanic Gardens. So I would have

8:20

a guess, I don't know this

8:22

for certain, that most of the

8:24

material is about the same age

8:27

that's happening at the moment. So

8:29

having said that, it's super random,

8:31

so you can't rely on that. That

8:33

makes sense. We've had a bit of

8:35

a competition to name the plant among

8:37

staff here at Botanic Gardens of Sydney.

8:39

Tell me, what is the winning name.

8:41

Yeah, it's Patricia. So Patricia, it was

8:44

selected by a panel. I was on

8:46

that panel, disclaimer there, yeah, of experts.

8:48

Yeah, we wanted to keep it simple.

8:50

I think simple works quite well. It's

8:52

a pace homage to somewhat the name

8:54

Patricia, Putrid, and then we love the

8:56

scientific link of Putrescene, which is a

8:59

chemical compound responsible for the smell essentially

9:01

of the plant and many other things,

9:03

but that was important to have that

9:05

scientific link. But yeah, it's a simple

9:07

name, it's fun, and I think it's

9:09

quite fitting. I love it, and it

9:11

is a tradition among other botanic gardens,

9:13

isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. It just seems

9:16

to be something that we all get

9:18

get involved in. It's a bit of

9:20

fun. I know recently, the Huntington, they

9:22

celebrated flaring by naming theirs, Adora, Centennial,

9:25

Stankosaurus, Rex, and Stinky, while Denver Botanic,

9:27

they had little stinker in bloom in

9:29

2022. So it is definitely something that

9:31

we like to get involved in. As

9:34

a horticulturalist, how special is this for

9:36

you? I can imagine it must be

9:38

a bit of a career defining moment.

9:40

Yeah, Louis is very special. I mean, to

9:42

be involved in this and everything that goes

9:45

into it is extremely special. I didn't think

9:47

that this would necessarily ever happen in my

9:49

career. I come from growing native plants to,

9:51

you know, they're more fulfilled. So, who would

9:53

have thought? But yeah, I'm most happy for

9:56

my team. They put in so much effort

9:58

all the time, you know, to... nurse these

10:00

things for many, many years. It's a

10:02

phenomenal effort really. So, you know, this

10:05

2025, we get to kick off the

10:07

year with this happening, potentially a second

10:09

one. Yeah, it's definitely, I guess, career

10:11

defining, but it's just very, very fantastic

10:14

to be part of. Amazing, and that's

10:16

enough for me. We have some questions

10:18

from our social media followers now. How

10:20

rare is it to see a corpse

10:22

flower in the wild? What a seed in

10:24

the wild is extremely rare. They're endemic

10:26

obviously to Samatra, we've said that a

10:28

few times, but they're also very vulnerable

10:30

in terms of there's not many left.

10:32

So there's roughly around 300 left in

10:34

the wild. So if you to be

10:36

in the right place at the right

10:38

time, given that they don't flour very

10:40

often, and to see one in the

10:42

wild is something that I would say

10:44

would be extremely rare for the normal

10:47

person. Are they self-pollinating? Will

10:49

the botanic gardens be collecting

10:51

pollen or other reproductive material?

10:53

Yeah, so no, they're not self-pollinating.

10:56

While it's possible, genetically, typically the

10:58

female parts of the flower, you

11:00

know, they're receptive to pollen in

11:02

the early stages where the male

11:05

parts of the flower are not

11:07

producing pollen, so that means typically...

11:09

one happens before the other, to

11:11

prevent that. So it's a defense

11:13

mechanism so that it doesn't become

11:15

too inbred, so that DNA can

11:18

spread and we get genetic variation.

11:20

So having said that, there's always

11:22

possibilities in nature. Things don't always

11:24

follow the rules. What we will

11:26

be doing is we've actually been

11:28

gifted, very thankfully, from another grower,

11:30

private grower, some pollen, from a

11:32

morphos titanium that recently bloomed for

11:35

them. So we'll be pollinating this

11:37

one with their material. and hopefully get

11:39

some seed and some genetic diversity out of

11:41

that which is super exciting. We're very excited

11:43

to be able to do that. And then

11:45

off Patricia we will be collecting pollen and

11:48

we'll look for opportunities to potentially share that

11:50

out with other botanic gardens or look to

11:52

pollinate some of our other material as it

11:54

comes along. The one thing though is across

11:56

botanic gardens there isn't a lot of genetic

11:59

diversity and there is that inbreeding that's

12:01

happening? So we're very interested

12:03

to collaborate with people who

12:05

have different genetic material. Someone commented

12:07

that they know it can take

12:09

10 or so years to bloom. Does

12:12

it just bloom once? That is a

12:14

very good question. It's very random. So

12:16

typically no, it can bloom multiple

12:18

times. They can live for decades, these

12:20

plants, going through this cycle of leaf

12:23

stage for seven, ten years, flower

12:25

for a year, and then back,

12:27

repeat, repeat, repeat. If they're pollinated.

12:29

They typically will die after they

12:31

fruit. So that's something that happens. If

12:33

they're not pollinated, then the collapse

12:35

of the flower happens quite quickly. They

12:37

go back into a dormant stage and

12:40

then they'll throw up another leaf. Now,

12:42

sometimes it has been reported that that

12:44

can happen and the leaf stage might

12:46

only be for two or three years

12:48

and then it will flower again. So

12:50

it's a quicker flowering cycle, hoping that

12:52

it will get pollinated. That's the whole

12:54

point. It wants to produce fertile seed.

12:56

So it can kind of speed that

12:58

process up. If it does that too many

13:01

times, it'll run out of energy

13:03

and die. So it's not fantastic

13:05

either. But that's a typical life

13:07

cycle. And what happens there? Such

13:10

a fascinating plan. And so looking

13:12

at the live stream. What is

13:14

that steam for and how does

13:16

it aid the plant? Yeah, the

13:18

steam is very much for the

13:20

theatrics of the whole display and

13:22

what we're trying to do. We

13:24

have humidifiers in the room, so

13:26

I think there's been a bit

13:28

of thought that the steam's adding

13:30

to the humidity. Well, it's not

13:32

detracting from it, but it's purely

13:35

just for theatrics. Does the

13:37

flower open suddenly or slowly? What's

13:39

the time frame and how long

13:41

before it dies off? The spath

13:43

tends to move away from

13:45

the spadex. Once that happens,

13:48

it's hard to say but maybe

13:50

six hours from when that

13:52

happens to full opening,

13:54

give or take. So we're

13:56

expecting that. That's what we're

13:59

relying on. Once the flower is

14:01

fully open, it'll stay open roughly around

14:03

24 hours. It can extend beyond

14:05

that. Some have been known to be

14:07

open for up to four days.

14:09

That's not typical, so at best I

14:11

would say 48 hours. It will

14:13

then close up. It closes up at

14:15

a similar rate at which it

14:17

opened. And then it will begin to

14:19

break down. So depending on if

14:22

pollination has been successful, we'll dictate what

14:24

that process looks like. If pollination

14:26

is not successful, it's quite quick. And

14:28

basically, the flower, it'll go limp

14:30

and collapse, and then it'll detach from

14:32

the corn underground. If it's pollinated,

14:34

the bit where the space is covering

14:36

will start producing fruits, and then

14:38

that above that will die back down.

14:40

So we might give it some

14:42

assistance just so that it doesn't damage

14:44

any of those ovules that are

14:46

swelling and forming fruit just to protect

14:48

the plant. So you might see

14:51

us in there cutting away parts of

14:53

the plant in order to preserve,

14:55

yeah, what that process, what's happening there.

14:57

And do we have any idea

14:59

if this bloom is going to happen

15:01

during the day or at night?

15:03

It's so inconsistent, so it's very difficult

15:05

to say, but generally it's an

15:07

afternoon nighttime thing, and that is because

15:09

of the pollinators that it's trying

15:11

to attract their nocturnal, I believe. And,

15:13

yeah, obviously it makes sense for

15:15

it to attract those when they're most

15:17

active. So typically it is, it's

15:20

in the afternoon. One thing that's, I

15:22

guess, impactful is the fact that

15:24

it's in controlled environment. So it doesn't

15:26

always follow the same rules and

15:28

things that it would if it was

15:30

in the wild population in terms

15:32

of the heat changes, humidity changes, light.

15:34

It's very stable, obviously in Sumatra

15:36

their temperatures don't range greatly in order

15:38

to the humidity. But, yeah, those

15:40

things obviously have an impact on the

15:42

plant. Is there any internal bets

15:44

going on when it could happen? Yeah,

15:46

there definitely is. It'd be nice

15:49

if I could say we're running a

15:51

sweeps, but we've just been so

15:53

busy that we actually didn't set that

15:55

up. But amongst the staff, yeah,

15:57

we're having a good time trying to

15:59

guess, and everyone's got their predictions

16:01

in. I think at one point my

16:03

prediction originated as Monday. and then you can't help

16:05

but get ahead of yourself from watching the plant change and so everyone's

16:07

guesses are kind of changing as it changes so it's a bit of

16:09

a rolling door but that's fun. All part of it

16:11

fun thanks Jared was there anything else

16:14

you wanted to add? Yeah I recommend that

16:16

you get down to the gardens and and

16:18

you check it out it's a it really

16:20

is a once in a lifetime opportunity I

16:22

mean if you're fortunate enough to to see

16:24

it twice or three times I think it's

16:26

still worthwhile so hope to see around the

16:28

garden. Patricia is now

16:30

on public display at the

16:32

Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, but don't

16:35

expect a stench until her space

16:37

has fully opened. And as you

16:39

just heard, it could still be

16:42

a few days away. entry is

16:44

by donation check our website and

16:46

socials for updated opening hours and

16:48

if you're interested in tracking Patricia's

16:51

growth in real time check out

16:53

our 24-hour live stream on the

16:55

Botanic Gardens of Sydney YouTube channel

16:57

we'll pop the links in the

17:00

show notes thanks for listening the

17:02

branch out if you enjoyed this

17:04

episode please leave a five-star rating

17:06

and review it helps more people

17:09

find branch out to discover the

17:11

surprising world of plants and stay

17:13

tuned We're currently working on a

17:15

new mini series about forensic botany.

17:18

Make sure you follow branch out

17:20

so you don't miss it. I'm

17:22

Beck Davis and this special bonus

17:24

episode was produced by Hannah Isard.