Not to be sniffed at... corpse plant sets record

THE unremitting odour of rotting flesh for five days straight would not normally be cause for celebration.

But experts at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) are popping champagne corks over the stench.

The attraction’s very rare, sixfoot ‘corpse flower’ has been emitting its famous aroma for a record-setting five days – drawing 15,000 visitors.

It burst into bloom on Tuesday – only the second time it has done so in Scotland.

The Amorphophallus titanum is renowned as the world’s smelliest plant. The ‘dead meat’ smell it emits to attract pollinators was expected to last ‘only one or two days’.

An RBGE spokesman said: ‘People are joking it must be the best stand-up at the Edinburgh Festival, but it is very likely that over the next day or two it will become the biggest flop.’

The plant, nicknamed ‘New Reekie’ by staff, has been cultivated in a tropical glasshouse at the RBGE since the ‘corm’ from which it grows was donated in 2003.

The botanical oddity unfurled last week to reveal a bright red flower – and pungent odour. On the first night, when the smell was strongest, visitors described a stench of rotting fish, stinky cheese, sweaty socks, dirty nappies and festering food waste.

The spokesman said: ‘We cannot expect it to stand for very much longer. After the collapse it is likely still to attract attention and then the chances are the corm will die.

‘It will probably be many years before we see such a sight again in Edinburgh.’