The air was thick with both anticipation and a pungent smell as visitors flocked to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden last weekend for a chance to see a rare flower bloom. The Amorphophallus gigas—a cousin to Amorphophallus titanum,

The bloom has attracted up to 20,000 admirers who filed past, hoping to experience the smell for themselves, with some attendees describing it as "like death," "like poop," and "like sewage water."

A rare plant known as the corpse flower bloomed in Sydney on Friday for the first time in more than a decade, emitting an odour likened to rotting flesh and delighting thousands who queued for a whiff.