Penis-Shaped Flower Stinks Out Gardens

The world's largest and smelliest flower opened in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens today.

The titan arum is native to Indonesia and its botanical name, Amorphophallus titanum, literally means a very large, deformed, penis.

It can grow up to three metres tall and has a banana-like, pale yellow wrinkled centre and a claret coloured frilly skirt.

A Botanic Garden spokesman says it smells like rotting flesh and believe it o rnot people actually queue up to saviour its stench.

"We've only had this on display once before - the first time we'd ever had it two years ago, the only complaints I got was that it didn't smell bad enough", he said. "That's what it does out in Indonesia where it grows, so it can attract these flies in to pollinate it".

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