Australia holds record for third bloom of rare flower known as 'corpse flower'

A rare bloom with a pungent smell like rotting meat has opened in the Australian capital, in the country's third such extraordinary bloom in as many months.

The corpse flower, also known by its scientific name amorphophallus titanium, bloomed for the first time in its 15 years at Canberra's Australian National Botanic Gardens on Saturday and was closing on Monday.

Another bloomed briefly at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens in late January, attracting 20,000 admirers, the Telegraph reports.

Similar numbers turned out to experience another fierce bloom at Geelong Botanic Gardens in Melbourne's southwest in November.

The corpse flower or corpse plant, known as bunga bangkai in Indonesia, is endemic to the tropical forests of West Sumatra.

It blooms for only a few days every 7 to 10 years in its natural habitat. Its pungent aroma attracts pollinators such as flies.

It is thought that there are only 300 of the plants in the wild and less than 1000 including those in cultivation.

Such a flower is 'produced' when the plant has stored enough energy in its underground tuber, known as a corm.

"One theory is that many of these plants are of a similar age, so they have just accumulated enough carbohydrates in the bark to finally produce a flower," said one expert. /Telegraph