Stinking flower blooms at Kew in UK first — but only for 48 hours

The endangered Pseudohydrosme gabunensis, native to Gabon, grows to almost half a metre and smells of old socks, which helps it survive in the wild
Donna Ferguson
The Times
A Kew Gardens apprentice examines a flowering Pseudohydrosme gabunensis plant.
Beth Davidson, a Kew botanical horticulturist, checks on the Pseudohydrosme gabunensis in Kew’s Princess of Wales Conservatory
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
Donna Ferguson
The Times

It is bright yellow, looks like the horn of a gramophone and stinks of “old socks”.

Now the Pseudohydrosme gabunensis — a rare and endangered plant that blooms for only 48 hours and grows to almost half a metre — is about to flower in public in the UK for the first time.

For weeks, horticulturists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have been waiting for this “spectacular” plant, commonly known as the Gabon false hydrosme, to bloom after spotting a flower bud growing from its tuber.

A Kew Gardens apprentice examines a flowering Pseudohydrosme gabunensis plant.
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Tom Pickering, head of glasshouses at Kew Gardens in southwest London, said: “When it reaches maturity, it starts to produce an odour, a distinct aroma. It smells like old socks.”

In the plant’s natural habitat, the lowland forests

PROMOTED CONTENT