The rare unfurling of an endangered plant that emits the smell of decaying flesh drew hundreds of devoted fans to a greenhouse in Australia on Thursday, where they lined up to experience a momentous bloom-–and a fragrance evoking gym socks and rotting garbage. Tall, pointed, and smelly, she's known as Putricia—a portmanteau of "putrid" and "Patricia" adopted by her followers who, naturally, call themselves Putricians. For a week, she has graced the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, per the AP. More than 13,000 admirers have filed past so far. No corpse flower has bloomed at the garden for 15 years.
- Slow bloomer: The plant only flowers every seven to 10 years in the wild. "The fact that they open very rarely, so they flower rarely, is obviously something that puts them at a little bit of a disadvantage in the wild," said garden rep Sophie Daniel, who designed Putricia's kooky, funereal display. "When they open, they have to hope that another flower is open nearby, because they can't self-pollinate."