Stench low but interest high

The rare and smelly corpse flower at the Dunedin Botanic Garden is still attracting crowds but the smell is "pretty much gone".

The pungent but short-lived bloom of the plant, Amorphophallus titanum, has been viewed and sniffed by thousands of people since it began flowering about noon on Saturday.

But  the "female parts" of the flower which generated the horrible scent had settled down and the nauseous smell was almost gone, winter garden collection curator Stephen Bishop said yesterday.

The flower would "rot off" and enter a dormant stage to start building up energy for another blooming.

Extended viewing hours at the winter garden glasshouse would continue for several more days.