An unusual flower has bloomed in Warsaw. It smells like "cheese, fish, and socks."

Botanists across the country have been waiting for this moment for several years. The giant arum lily from the University of Warsaw Botanical Garden last bloomed in 2021. Back then, the plant needed about eight hours to fully bloom, and remained open for four to six hours. Everyone was curious to see if these times would be repeated.

Warsaw. The giant arum has bloomed.

"We're dealing with an older plant, stronger, and much larger. What will it be like this time? We don't know! And maybe that's the beauty of it," experts emphasized on social media. As we saw, this time the entire process began around 8:30 PM and lasted until 2:00 AM. There were plenty of daredevils who stayed up all night to admire this rare phenomenon.

Piotr Dobrzyński, the plant's caretaker, emphasized that a lot of courage was required, especially during direct observation. He reminded us that the giant arum exudes a very specific odor. In an interview with RMF FM, he compared it to the smell of "rotting cheese, fish, sweaty socks." Sometimes even worse. "Of the worst smells we can imagine, it's feces," he revealed.

The giant arum fern (Amorphophallus titanum) is the largest species of its genus. Native to the humid equatorial forests of Sumatra, Indonesia, it owes its Polish name, of course, to its unusual appearance.

"Like other plants in the Araceae family, the arum has a spadix-shaped inflorescence surrounded by a reddish-brown subinflorescence. In nature, the massive inflorescence can reach almost 3 meters in height and over 1.5 meters in width," emphasized the University of Warsaw Botanical Garden staff.

Why does the giant arum have such a strong smell?

"The specific scent, which is intensified by the increased temperature inside the inflorescence, spreads over long distances to quickly attract as many pollinators as possible (flowering lasts only 2-3 days)," they explained.

This year's arum tuber weighed nearly 40 kilograms. It has gained 13 kilograms since 2021. "This thickened stem stores reserve material, enabling the rapid growth of a single leaf. Such a leaf has a powerful, trunk-like, spotted petiole several meters high and a deeply lobed, divided leaf blade 2-3 meters in diameter," the report explained.

"After some time, the leaf dies, but thanks to the process of photosynthesis, a larger tuber can form, which enters a period of dormancy until the next phase of growth, usually a single leaf, and once every few years – as now – an inflorescence," it added.

Read also: This plant looks better than thuja and is less prone to disease. This is the best hedge shrub. Read also: "Forest Death" heralds a mushroom El Dorado. It's a sign that porcini mushroom season has begun.