DEVIL'S TONGUE: The metre-high flower is blooming for the first time in a decade.

Putting up with the stench of rotting flesh is a small price to see a rare flowering Devil's Tongue at Wellington's Botanic Gardens.

The metre-high flower is blooming for the first time in a decade at the garden's Begonia House and was attracting a lot of attention during the Spring Festival yesterday.

Botanic Gardens visiting services officer Charmaine Scott, who owns the plant, said many visitors to the glasshouse stopped to admire the deep maroon, velvet-like flower.

But the scent of carrion in the air was drawing grizzles from some.

"My husband's really, really pleased I've donated it to the botanic garden for a couple of weeks because it stinks," Ms Scott said.

"It just smells disgusting, it's pure dead hedgehog, honestly.

"But it's a rare and special plant in this country. If you wait that long for something to flower . . . it's such a special thing."

The Devil's Tongue, or Amorphophallus konjac, is native to Southeast Asia and releases the carrion scent to attract flies for pollination.

It belongs to the arum family and is related to the Indonesian titan arum, which has a flower that is more than three metres tall - the biggest in the world.

Ms Scott, who recalls guests fleeing her home for the day when another of her Devil's Tongues flowered about 11 years ago, said the plant was beautiful.

"It's so gothic. It would sit comfortably in a vampire's house."

The flower has been in bloom for two days and is only expected to last one more day.