When it comes to flowers, people often talk excitedly about their gorgeous colours or delicate fragrances. Blooms like lavender and roses have become synonymous with stunning scents and are often used in perfumes, body washes, and more. And then there is the infamous titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) – otherwise known as the ‘corpse flower’.
The rare and endangered plant, which hails from Sumatra, received the upsetting nickname for its -ahem- unique aroma. It became known as the ‘corpse flower’ for the “unmistakable stench of rotting meat”. And over in Kew Gardens, one such flower has just reached full bloom today (April 28).
It’s the first of Kew’s titan arum collection to flower this year, and the blooming comes in the wake of the flower being kept in careful conditions.
“The plant’s bud, no more than 66cm tall, was moved into the glasshouse’s climate-controlled tropical zone on 4 April, where it has been carefully monitored and measured each day in anticipation of its inflorescence (flowering structure) opening.”
The blooming ‘corpse flower’
We first wrote about the corpse flower’s impending bloom at the end of last week, on April 22. It seemed to be on the cusp of blooming, and could have reached full bloom as soon as the next day. Today, it has fully opened, and it’s a stunning, albeit rather fragrant, sight.
Last week, the flower was standing an impressive 2.26 metres in height. It had grown a huge amount in just 3 weeks, from a little over half a metre tall at the start of April. Now that it’s reached full bloom, it’s standing a staggering 2.66m tall.
There’s not long to see the bloom, though, as titan arum’s only open for a mere 2 to 3 days. So if you need to experience the flower and the scent in person, you’ll want to rush over to Kew ASAP.
The titan arum’s bloom
The ‘corpse flower’ takes many years to reach maturity and flowering size. Their blooms are extremely hard to predict, but also spectacular. At peak inflorescence, they can measure up to 3 metres in height.
And then there’s the smell… But, naturally, the smell has a purpose. The rotten odour is “meant to attract carrion flies and other pollinators.”
And lest you think the smell is centralised to where the plant is, that’s certainly not the case. “When it blooms, the spadix, or central structure, also produces heat, which helps the plant to disperse its rotting stench far and wide through the rainforest.”
The soon-to-bloom titan arum is 1 of 40 of the plants in Kew’s collection. The collection is particularly important since the plant is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This is largely due to the threat posed by deforestation and land use change.
🪴You can see the titan arum in the Princess of Wales Conservatory until 6:30pm, Tuesday and Wednesday.
📍 Princess of Wales Conservatory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, TW9 3AE
🚇 The nearest station is Kew Gardens.
