Titan arum

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{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Titan arum | image = titan_arum.752.jpg | image_width = 200px | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Liliopsida | ordo = Alismatales | familia = Araceae | genus = Amorphophallus | species = A. titanum | binomial = Amorphophallus titanum | binomial_authority = (Becc.) Becc. ex Arcang }}

The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The largest single flower is borne by the Rafflesia arnoldii; the largest branched inflorescence in the plant kingdom is the Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera). Due to its fragrance, the titan arum is also known as the "Corpse plant" (in Indonesian, "bunga bangkai" – bunga means flower, while bangkai means corpse or cadaver; for the same reason, the same title is also attributed to Rafflesia which, like the titan arum, also grows in the rainforests of Sumatra).

The titan arum's inflorescence can reach over 3 metres tall, taller than a human. Like the related cuckoo pint and calla lily, it consists of a fragrant spadix of flowers wrapped by a spathe, which looks like the flower's single petal. The "fragrance" of the inflorescence resembles rotting meat, attracting carrion-eating beetles and Flesh Flies (family Sarcophagidae) that pollinate it.

Image:Titan.arum.kewgardens.london.arp.jpg

Both male and female flowers grow in the same inflorescence. The female flowers open first, then a day or two following, the male flowers open. This prevents the flower from self-pollinating.

After the flower dies back, a single leaf, which reaches the size of a small tree, grows from the underground corm. The leaf grows on a semi-green stalk that branches into three sections at the top, each containing many leaflets. The leaf structure can reach up to 6 m tall and 5 m across. Each year, the old leaf dies and a new one grows in its place. When the corm has stored enough energy, it becomes dormant for about 4 months. Then, the process repeats.

1 Cultivation
2 List of recent blooms
3 References in Popular Culture
4 External links

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Cultivation

The titan arum only grows in the wild in the equatorial rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was first discovered there in 1878 by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari. The plant flowers only infrequently in the wild and even more rarely when cultivated. It first flowered in cultivation at the Royal Botanic Gardens, at Kew in London, in 1889, with around 60 cultivated blossoms since then. The first documented flowerings in the U.S. were at New York Botanical Garden in 1937 and 1939. The number of cultivated plants has increased in recent years, and it is not uncommon for there to be five or more flowering events in gardens around the world in a single year.

Until 2005, the tallest bloom in cultivation, some 2.74 m high, was achieved at the Botanical Gardens of Bonn, Germany in 2003. The event was acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records (see the certificate).

On 20 October 2005, this record was broken at the botanical and zoological garden Wilhelma in Stuttgart, Germany. The bloom reached a height of 2.91 m.

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List of recent blooms

**Publicised flowering events in cultivation since May 2003**
Date	Location	External link
May 12, 2003	Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, (the garden's fifth since 1998)	[1]
May 22, 2003	Botanic Garden, Bonn, Germany	[2]
June 9, 2003	UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, University of California, Davis	[3]
June 10, 2003	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London (Kew's fourth since April 2002)	[4]
July 2, 2003	Le Conservatoire Botanique, Brest	[5] Template:Fr icon
July 23, 2003	United States Botanic Garden, Washington, DC (second since 2001)	[6]
August 4, 2004	Virginia Tech Horticulture Garden, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia	[7]
August 4, 2004	University of Wisconsin-Madison (the university's third since 2001)	[8]
August 13, 2004	UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, University of California, Davis	[9]
September 2, 2004	Cambridge University Botanic Garden, University of Cambridge	[10]
7 October, 2004	Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, Australia	[11]
11 April, 2005	Eden Project, St. Austell, UK	[12]
21 April, 2005	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London (Kew's fifth since April 2002)	[13]
May 14, 2005	Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, (the garden's fifth since 1998)	[14]
May 30, 2005	San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers	[15]
June 9, 2005	University of Wisconsin-Madison (the university's fourth since 2001)	[16]
18 June, 2005	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London (Kew's sixth since April 2002)	[17]
June 28 2005	University of Wisconsin-Madison (the university's fifth since 2001)	[18]
June 29, 2005	Volunteer Park Conservatory, Seattle (on loan from University of Washington)	[19]
June 29, 2005	Myriad Botanical Gardens, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	[20]
July 14, 2005	University of California Botanical Garden, University of California, Berkeley (on loan from Bill Weaver)	[21]
July 14, 2005	Botanic Garden, Gothenburg, Sweden	[22]
August 13, 2005 (est)	The Botanic Garden of Smith College , Northampton, MA	[23]
October 20, 2005	Stuttgart Zoological and Botanic Garden, Wilhelma, Stuttgart, Germany	[24] Template:De icon
November 19, 2005	United States Botanic Garden, Washington, DC (specimen owned by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany)	[25]

Template:Commons Image:Titan arum open.JPG

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References in Popular Culture

Appearance in the TV series CSI:Crime Scene Investigation episode Pirates of the Third Reich; Appearance in the animated TV series The Simpsons, episode Moe's Baby Blues

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