A “corpse flower” in the Berlin Botanical Garden in Germany bloomed last Sunday, June 29th, attracting a large number of visitors due to its extremely short blooming period and low flowering frequency. Visitors flocked to the scene to witness the unique charm of this flower and experience its incredibly pungent and distinctive odor.
The corpse flower, officially known as “Titan arum,” also known as corpse flower or Titan arum, is native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. Among plants with unbranched inflorescences, it is known as the largest flower in the world, with its inflorescence reaching heights of over 3 meters.
The species is named for its strong odor resembling rotting flesh when it blooms, which is intended to attract insects like flies for pollination. The flower is odorless when not in bloom. After blooming, the flower only lasts for 2 to 3 days, and if successfully pollinated, it may wither in just one day.
The corpse flower in the Berlin Botanical Garden grew its inflorescence on June 11th, reaching a height of 2.29 meters by the 27th. During the day on the 29th, its inflorescence slowly unfolded like a pleated skirt, with the yellow-green outer layer resembling petals curling outward to reveal the dark red inner layer, taking several hours to fully bloom.
According to the garden, the inflorescence of this flower measures 2.36 meters, making it the largest inflorescence ever recorded in Berlin.
It is known that the Titan arum only blooms once every 7 to 10 years in the wild and cannot self-pollinate, relying on nearby plants of the same species to bloom for cross-pollination to occur. This makes their survival in the wild very challenging. It is estimated that there are only around 300 plants in the wild, including those cultivated artificially, totaling less than 1,000 plants globally. The species has been listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Therefore, witnessing the blooming of the Titan arum is truly a delightful event. Here, let’s take a look at some of the more famous blooming records.
In 1889, the first Titan arum cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London bloomed, marking the first recorded flowering of this plant through artificial cultivation, causing a sensation in the UK and across Europe.
In 2003, the Titan arum planted in the Botanical Garden in Bonn, Germany, bloomed with an inflorescence reaching 2.74 meters, becoming the tallest flower in the world at that time, and was recorded in the Guinness World Records.
In October 2005, a Titan arum in the Wilhelma Zoo and Botanical Garden in Stuttgart, Germany, bloomed with an inflorescence 2.91 meters high, breaking the previous record set by the Bonn Botanical Garden.
In June 2010, a Titan arum measuring 3.1 meters high bloomed in the Winnipesaukee Orchids in Gilford, New Hampshire, USA, breaking the previous record once again and becoming the tallest flower recorded in the Guinness World Records.