What a blooming rotten way to go ... corpse flower likely to die soon

Araregiantflowersaidtosmell like rotten flesh could die within 48 hours – just days after coming into bloom.

“New Reekie” flowered on Tuesday and began giving off the distinctive smell which earned it its local Indonesian name of “corpse flower”.

Staff at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have been nurturing it for more than 12 years for it to reach this state.

But if pollination proves successful, it is likely to only last for 48 hours before dying.

Research associate Axel Dalberg Poulsen said: “When 0 Titan arum came into bloom only a few days ago it fully opened the smell was really very strong. It’s fishy. In some parts of the room it is more like seaweed. It has also been called the corpse flower, so it’s definitely the rotten flesh business we are into.”

Whentheplantfirstflowered in June 2015, around 19,000 people visited the Lowland Tropics House to see the first flowering of an Amorphophallus titanum in Scotland.

This time the plant will be pollinated and if it successfully fruits, the plant will most probably die within one or two days.

The plant, titan arum, will either create a leaf or a floral structure, but never at the same time. Beneath the soil of the flowered plant is a bulb which weighs several hundred kilos.

The plant was discovered in 1878 during an expedition in Sumatra, Indonesia.