A blooming plant that reeks of gym socks and rotting garbage has thousands lining up for a whiff

By Charlotte Graham-Mclay and Rick Rycroft

The rare unfurling of an endangered plant that emits the smell of decaying flesh drew hundreds of devoted fans to a greenhouse in Sydney on Thursday where they joined three-hour lines to experience a momentous bloom -– and a fragrance evoking gym socks and rotting garbage.

Tall, pointed and smelly, the corpse flower is scientifically known as amorphophallus titanum — or bunga bangkai in Indonesia, where the plants are found in the Sumatran rainforest.

But to fans of this specimen, she’s Putricia — a portmanteau of “putrid” and “Patricia” eagerly adopted by her followers who, naturally, call themselves Putricians. For a week, she has graced a stately and gothic display in front of a purple curtain and wreathed in mist from a humidifier at the Royal Sydney Botanic Garden.

Her rise to fame since has been rapid, with up to 20,000 admirers filing past for a moment in her increasingly pungent