People lined up to see—and smell—the blossoms of two pungent plant species, which only bloom for a short time every few years

Sydney's corpse flower attracts thousands of people with its rare blossom and its stench of rotting flesh, offering a fascinating lesson.

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.

One by one, visitors to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden pulled out their phones snap pictures of the rare blooming plant before leaning in to brave a whiff of its infamously putrid scent, which resembles that of rotting flesh.

Across the globe in Australia, a Amorphophallus titanum corpse flower nicknamed Putricia has been blooming for the past week at the Royal Sydney Botanic Garden. This is the first time in 15 years that one of these flowers has bloomed in Sydney and over 20,000 people have stopped in to take a whiff.

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."

The flower's Latin name translates as "giant, misshapen penis." But it's better known to locals as "Putricia." Royal Botanical Garden Sydney has even set up a livestream in anticipation.

New Yorkers lined up for hours outside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to catch a glimpse -- and a whiff -- of the facility's rare blooming corpse flower.