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May 6, 2007 : Amorphophallus titanum

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Keywords: Araceae | Amorphophallus titanum (Becc.) Becc. ex Arcang | cultivated in Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York, USA

Amorphophallus titanum

Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel

Thanks once again to van swearingen@Flickr for sharing a photograph with us (original photo | BPotD Flickr Group Pool).

Excluding economically-vital plants, I suspect titan arum receives the most minutes of airtime and most inches / centimeters of newsprint than any other species of plant. Considering its impressiveness as the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world and the fact it can be cultivated (unlike the largest flower), it is perhaps no surprise that it is a media darling when it blooms.

View a set of photographs of Amorphophallus titanum taken at Kew in April 2007 by whatsthatpicture@Flickr to see how the inflorescence changes as the plant blooms. RBG Kew provides a detailed mini-site on titan arum, while Wikipedia provides links to current and historic blooming events along with an information summary.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at May 6, 2007 12:00 AM

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Comments

i was in selby gardens sarasota florida
when they had one in bloom yes it most
surely keeps the line moveing

Posted by: elizabeth a airhart at May 6, 2007 6:59 AM

Love this plant. Missed my chance to donate to a good cause to see it when one bloomed in New Hampshire. Gonna keep trying.

Posted by: Deborah Lievens at May 6, 2007 4:11 PM

Check the full series from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden website:

http://www.bbg.org/vis2/2006/titan/photos/

Posted by: Karen Vaughan at May 6, 2007 8:19 PM

Pretty impressive! Karen- Thanks for that link to those albums. Daniel's right! This plant sure is a media magnet!

Posted by: elizabeth at May 7, 2007 9:22 AM

Never smelled one of these but I can imagine. Good thing monitors don't transmit odors.

Posted by: Ron B at May 7, 2007 8:11 PM

Great picture! We just had a titan arum bloom at the UC Davis greenhouse. Quite the media event! They said this year was the smelliest, and I certainly agree.

You can check out the web link for time lapse photography of the bloom opening:
http://greenhouse.plb.ucdavis.edu/conservatory/

Posted by: Jill at June 2, 2007 1:05 PM

Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!

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