‘I can hear dry-retching from inside’: queuing for hours to smell Geelong’s corpse plant

The so-called corpse plant takes a decade to flower – and when it does, the blossom lasts just 24-48 hours and smells of rotting flesh

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I’ve never smelt the rotting decay of a corpse, but I’m told it would smell something like the slightly phallic endangered flower on display at Geelong’s botanic gardens.

The smell of the so-called corpse plant, or amorphophallus titanum, for those playing at home, hits you like a punch in the face – even from 20 metres away.

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