Thieves steal most foul-smelling plant on the planet which could bloom at any time | News World

Police in Germany are looking for criminals which dug up the world’s stinkiest plant from local botanical gardens.

Staff at Rombergpark Botanical Garden in Dortmund, Germany, discovered the titan arum plant, named ‘David’, vanished during a routine inspection.

The plant, which weighs around 60 kilos, is known for its stinky bloom, which only appears for a number of days once every few years.

Also often known as the ‘corpse flower’, is certainly one of the world’s rarest plants – and the smelliest. Only around 1,000 specimens are left within the wild they usually bloom for just 24 hours every few years, emitting a disgusting smell described as a cross between ‘wet socks, hot cat food, or rotting possum flesh.’

David last bloomed in 2021, meaning it’s overdue for a bloom – these thieves could have a stinky problem on their hands.

When the plant last bloomed, hundreds of individuals travelled to Dortmund to get a whiff of it and see the rare occasion.

In an announcement, an worker said: ‘The theft of David is a blow to us.

‘Many Dortmund residents have been waiting for the following bloom. We hope the thieves regret their decision and return David.’

Earlier this 12 months, one particular plant, nicknamed ‘Putricia’, was preparing to bloom at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, where countless visitors turned as much as get a whiff.

John Siemon, the director of horticulture and living collections on the gardens, likened the spectacle to Sydney’s 2000 Olympics, noting, ‘We’ve had 15,000 people come through the gates before the flower even opened.’

‘This specimen is around 10 years old. We acquired it from our colleagues on the LA Botanic Garden when it was three, and we’ve been nurturing it for the last seven years,’ he told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

Considered one of the rare plants bloomed within the UK last 12 months in Kew Gardens for just over 24 hours, with visitors rushing to get a whiff.

The mystery of why the corpse flower smells so bad was finally solved by a research team in Dartmouth in 2024.

By studying the blooms of a 21-year-old corpse flower named Morphy housed at Dartmouth’s Life Sciences Greenhouse they found the flower’s stench comes from the heating of 1 a part of the plant.

Then the flower begins to release a cocktail of chemicals including dimethyl trisulfide, dimethyl disulfide, trimethylamine, isovaleric acid, and indole.

In case you’re wondering what these smell like, they’re cheese, garlic, rotting fish, sweaty socks, and faeces, respectively.

But that’s not all. The researchers also revealed that the flower also emits a chemical called putrescine. This can be released by rotting dead bodies.

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