Thousands of visitors admire stinking "titanium penis"

Geelong - Thousands of visitors have flocked to the Australian city of Geelong in recent days to admire a special plant that not only has an unusual name, but also smells terrible.

You can more or less guess where the nickname "titanium penis" comes from with this plant - especially when it is in flower.
You can more or less guess where the nickname "titanium penis" comes from with this plant - especially when it is in flower.  © City of Greater Geelong

Until today, Tuesday, visitors had the chance to marvel at the "titanium penis" in the botanical garden there. Of course, this very descriptive name does not appear in the dictionary, where the plant species is called "Amorphophallus titanum" or "Titanenwurz".

The special thing about the green stem is that it only blooms very rarely, usually only every ten years, according to the City of Geelong. The flowering period itself lasts a maximum of two days before the leaves close again.

After the plant had grown to a height of over 1.40 meters in a very short time since the beginning of last week, the time had come on Monday and the "titanium penis" could be admired - and smelled - in all its glory.

In addition to its genital nickname, the titanium root has been given another inglorious name: "corpse plant". During the flowering period, it smells of decay. In recent days, visitors are said to have compared the smell to a "dead mouse" or a "stinking lake".

During the flowering period, the plant smells of decay.
During the flowering period, the plant smells of decay.  © City of Greater Geelong

Those who didn't want to feel the smell in the sinus cavity on site even had the opportunity to watch the Titanenwurz from a safe distance via livestream. According to the city, thousands of visitors watched the bloom on site, with over 55,000 viewers glued to their screens.