The unopened flower
This is a real botanical event people! This Friday I noticed the staff of the Singapore Botanic Gardens installing a display of the titan arum. The plant’s scientific name (Amorphophallus titanum) literally translates to “huge, shapeless phallus.” Found naturally in the forests of Sumatra, it has the largest unbranched flower inflorescence in the world. The flower structure is a vertical spadix enclosed by a showy spathe and can reach up to 3 m tall and 1 m wide. But the size isn’t even the half of it.
The flower emits a stench similar to rotten fish and generates significant heat. This unique combination of heat, smell, and color imitates that similarly generated by decomposing animals. Therefore, as you might guess, the flower is pollinated by flies and bees commonly supporting the decomposition process. Some stories about pollination biology, including this one, literally blow my mind! Its common names include the “titan arum” and “corpse flower.”
In the rain forest, the plant’s vegetative and reproductive structures grow from an underground tuber. Before flowering, a huge compound leaf arises and persists for a number of years to manufacture resources for the storage organ below ground. After the leaf sheds, the flower emerges and opens over a short period of two days. I will try to time my visits right and capture a photograph of the fully opened flower and share it with you. However, this is a plant that must truly be experienced in person! If you get the chance, don’t miss it.
Check out this video of David Attenborough with a titan arum.
