The ‘Death-Scented’ Plant That Attracts Crowds When It Blooms

Inside a warm greenhouse with a faint musty smell, a line of people moves slowly, all eager for a unique moment: to witness the famous corpse flower in full bloom.

Surrounded by carnivorous plants and rhododendrons, the focus is on this impressive plant, which has fascinated humanity for centuries with its peculiar odor and exotic appearance. Although its intriguing anatomy only began to be studied in detail in the 1990s, its fame has been passed down through generations.

As I turn a corner in the greenhouse, I finally see the corpse flower: an imposing yellowish spike emerging from a large, wrinkled green structure with a purple edge. The plant towers several meters high, standing out in the environment.

I’m at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, in Scotland, where the corpse flower has become the main attraction. This particular plant, nicknamed “New Reekie,” in honor of the old name for the city, “Auld Reekie,” is 22 years old, and its blooming is a rare and brief event.

The flower bloomed just two days before my visit, and since the blooming lasts for only a short time, I decided to join the roughly 2,000 people who also came to see the giant plant and, of course, experience the infamous “death scent” it emits.

New Reekie arrived in Edinburgh as a dormant corm, similar to a tuber, from the Leiden Botanical Garden in the Netherlands in 2003. At the time, it was the size of an orange, but over the years, it grew significantly. In 2010, when it was last weighed, the team had to borrow a scale from the zoo, usually used for weighing baby elephants. The corm reached an impressive 153.9 kg, the largest ever recorded for this species.

Paulina Maciejewska-Daruk, a horticulturist at the Botanic Garden, has been taking care of New Reekie for over a decade. According to her, despite its size and exotic appearance, the plant is relatively easy to grow. “All it needs is heat, plenty of water, and lots of fertilizer. After that, you just let it grow,” Paulina explains.

This rare plant, with its unmistakable scent and impressive appearance, continues to draw visitors from all over, making its brief bloom an unmissable spectacle for nature lovers.4o

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