A RARE foul smelling plant has flowered in a garden in Cwmbran for the first time in 23 years.

Paul O’Connor said the dracunculus vulgaris (dragon arum), which has been growing in his family’s back garden for more than 40 years, began flowering for only the second time over the weekend.

Paul’s father John, aged 86, featured in the South Wales Argus on July 3, 1992, when the "foul smelling plant" last flowered.

He said that he believed the recent warm weather had led to the plant flowering.

It comes as two of the world’s smelliest flowers have also blossomed in the space of a week.

The giant amorphophallus titanum, which has a strong smell of rotting flesh, has been flowering in The Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh (RBGE) for the first time, whilst the titan arum, known as the corpse flower because it has an odour like rotting meat, has flowered at Paignton Zoo for the first time in 12 years.

Mr O’Connor senior, who lived at Clyffes on Greenmeadow in Cwmbran before his son Paul moved into the house, said: “We talked about it every year wondering whether it would flower again.

“I have tried to get rid of it a few times but it always comes back.

“He’s a determined little flower.”

He said that whenever it flowers it gives off a ‘putrid smell’ that is almost unbearable to be around.

“It’s like a flesh wound,” he said.

“The first time it flowered I thought a dog had brought something dead over and dumped it there.

“I used to do a lot of fishing and it smells like rotting fish, it’s really a horrible smell.

“It was unbearable on Sunday and took over the whole garden.”

After the plant first flowered in 1992, botanical experts from Tredegar House and Park in Newport revealed the plant was a drancunculus vulgaris.

The plant is commonly found in areas stretching from the Mediterranean to South Africa, and its foul smell is an aid to fertilisation – the flowers are so darkly-coloured that the smell is needed to attract insects to pollinate the bloom.

It is believed the lily originated from bird seed Mr O’Connor’s son used to feed his budgies.

The plant has not needed watering.