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.

Alongside being one of the biggest flowers in the world, the endangered Bunga Bangkai is known for the stench that oozes from it when it blooms. According to the Botanic Gardens Of Sydney website, it has been described as “rotting flesh”, “wet socks”, “hot cat food” or for a more specific picture, “rotting possum flesh”.