Thousands of visitors have witnessed the blooming of a phallic plant dubbed the ‘titan penis flower’.
The rude-looking flower takes between 7 and 10 years to bloom.
After nearly a decade of gathering enough energy to begin its cycle, the flowering period lasts between 24 and 72 hours.
The resulting flower is one of the largest in the world.
- Advertisement -
As a result, around 15,000 people flocked to the Jean-Marie Pelt Botanical Garden in Villers-lès-Nancy, France, to witness the rising of the phallic flower on 11 July.
Director, Frédéric Pautz said: “It’s years and years of waiting for just a few hours.”
The event was only the fifth flowering of the plant, known as the titan arum in France since 1878.
It was also the largest titan arum ever seen in the country.
The plant arrived at the botanical garden as a seedling in 2018.
- Advertisement -
It stands at nearly two metres (6ft 6ins) in height.
The flowering process ended at around 5:15 pm, but the venue remained open until midnight so as many people as possible could view it.
The garden’s schedule was also adjusted for longer opening hours on Wednesday and Thursday.
- Advertisement -
Mr Pautz, who travelled from Paris to see the blooming, said: “This is a huge moment.
“She’s beautiful. She was already very beautiful closed, but she is even more stunning open.”
He added: “Two metres isn’t too shabby either.”
This plant is native to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia and is threatened with extinction.
Kew Gardens in London calls the titan arum “one of the smelliest plants on Earth.”
The Royal Botanic Gardens adds: “Nicknamed the corpse flower, it has an incredibly foul smell of rotten flesh when in bloom.”
Read the full article here
