Soon after, U.S. President

Sophie Daniel poses for a photo next to an endangered plant known as the “corpse flower” for its putrid stink, at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)After seven years at the garden, Putricia’s flower was spotted in December when she was just 25 centimeters (10 inches) high. By Thursday, she was 1.6 meters (5 feet 3 inches) tall.

During the day, her flower spike slowly opened like a pleated skirt around a majestic central tuber, the yellow-green outer curling to reveal a burgundy center.An endangered plant known as the “corpse flower” for its putrid stink, is about to bloom at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)An endangered plant known as the “corpse flower” for its putrid stink, is about to bloom at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

As excitement grew in Sydney about the unfolding bloom, garden staff erected crowd barriers giving the Victorian greenhouse the air of a rock concert. Fans trod a red carpet to view Putricia from behind velvet ropes in a display inspired by Queen Victoria’s funeral, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and the oeuvre ofInside, fans took selfies and leaned in for a sniff — a more perilous prospect as Putricia’s odor developed. People inhaled the “slaughterhouse” stench and canceled their dinner plans, said Sydney Morning Herald science reporter Angus Dalton.

“I am sickened,” he added. “I am in awe.”

One young woman raised her hands and bowed as though in worship. On social media, garden staff performed a viral dance in front of the plant to Chappell Roan’s summer hit HOT TO GO!Dugan’s arrest has escalated a clash between the Trump administration and Democrats over the Republican president’s

Democrats contend that Dugan’s arrest went too far and that the administration is trying to make an example out of her to discourage judicial opposition to the crackdown.Dugan’s case is similar to one brought during the first Trump administration

, who was accused of helping a man sneak out a courthouse back door to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent. That case was eventually dismissed.According to prosecutors, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz illegally reentered the U.S. after being deported in 2013. He was charged in March with misdemeanor domestic violence in Milwaukee County and was in Dugan’s courtroom for a hearing in that case on April 18.