Man gets 'pungent and rotten' whiff of corpse flower before he sees it
A wildlife enthusiast-cum-photographer has gotten lucky once more.
He got to see the elusive corpse flower in full bloom again recently, after previous sightings in February 2023 and June 2021.
Stomper John Lee, founder of Wildlife Asia (Singapore), said he smelled the plant before he spotted it. However, he declined to share the location in order to protect it.
He recounted: "After waiting for over a year, the corpse flower finally bloomed in Singapore again. Wow!!!
"I had received a tip-off about it and drove there to capture a good shot for sharing purposes.
"I smelt it from over three metres away because the wind was blowing towards me, before the magnificent and huge corpse flower appeared right before my eyes."
John described the odour as "foul", "rotten", "pungent" and "like dead".
"The location is confidential as people previously removed the flower for selfish purposes, but I feel ecstatic and overjoyed by the rare sighting," he added.
John was referencing an incident where a corpse flower bloomed in Sembawang in 2021, only to be cut off and removed not long after. He told Stomp at that time he had arrived too late to stop the alleged culprits.
The bright red flower blooms once every few years, typically for at most three days before it starts to wilt.
More info about the corpse flower can be found here.
