It’s without a doubt that 2025 has handed us an abundance of loveable divas — think Olivia Dean and Zohran Mamdani. However, before we kiss this year goodbye (or kick it to the curb), I want to take a moment to spotlight Australia’s very own star of 2025: Putricia, Sydney’s blooming corpse flower.
Picture this: it’s the start of the year, and getting back into a routine is a bloody drag. The water cooler chats in the office make you wonder if your co-workers are undercover energy vampires as y’all go in circles about the holidays and how such-and-such date was a “day for it”.
So, to escape the hustle and bustle of the world, you turn to YouTube, where you stumble upon a livestream of a voluptuous, tall, green icon with thousands upon thousands of people watching.
“WWTF” you see flood the comments, and all of a sudden, you’re hooked.
This, my friends, was January 2025, and my oh my, it was an exciting time to be both chronically online and a Sydneysider.
You see, the Botanic Gardens of Sydney was prepping for the blooming of its Bunga Bangkai (corpse flower), remarkably named Putricia.
The Bunga Bangkai is one of the biggest flowers in the world, it’s endangered, and it’s known for its stinky, stinky stench that oozes from it when it blooms. The Botanic Gardens have likened the smell to “rotting flesh”, “wet socks”, “hot cat food” or — for a more visual description — “rotting possum flesh”.
What made this event was incredibly exciting is not only the fact that Putricia was blooming for the first time in 15 years, but the 24/7 livestream of the plant, which united both plant lovers and the chronically online.
Ahead of Putricia’s ‘opening’, punters would flock to the comments section of the livestream, complimenting the green goddess, labelling her as “thicc”.
Putricia also had a humidifier placed under her; as a result, some folks dubbed her “the humble vaping plant”.
Some other honourable comment section mentions include someone calling the livestream an “OnlyFans for Botanists”, others telling guests off for picking their nose in front of Putricia, and people demanding a child for sacrifice so she would open up.
However, the biggest ‘movement’ to come out was the acronym “WWTF”, which stood for “We Watch The Flower”. The origins of the cult-ish acronym has remained a mystery but it list up the chat until she opened.
Per the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, the livestream drew more than 1.7 million views globally, and more than 27,000 queued to see her IRL.
As someone who peruses the internet 24/7, having Putricia and the livestream was such a bloody delight, and watching the comments fire up with whacky plant jokes truly kicked off 2025 on the right foot.
Unfortunately, it’ll be a long time before we get another Putricia event. But for now, I’ll just thank this absolute icon for gifting us unity, joy and botanic REALNESS this year.
Putricia, you really are Australia’s diva of 2025.
The post A Love Letter To Putricia, Australia’s Unofficial Diva Of 2025 Who United The Internet appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
