Friday, December 21, 2012

Titan Arum Flower

In the tropical greenhouse at the Royal Botanic Gardens, a titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is about to flower:
Titan Arum flower
The flower is expected to open early next week, but it is amazing to see even at this stage. The next shot gives you an idea of its current size:

The gardens were beautiful this morning. Here's the canna rain bed, in front of a lovely jacaranda which is brighter purple in real life (usual camera problem with purple):
Much nicer way to spend the morning than Christmas shopping!

4 comments:

Kate said...

Couldn't agree more!

kaiteM said...

yes i agree also, and that titan arum flower is extraordinary isn't it, thanks for showing it...

Liz Needle said...

That Titan Arum is amazing. How often do they flower?

Vireya said...

They won't flower until the corm weighs more than 32kg. After flowering the corm weighs less because it takes so much energy to produce this massive flower, so it takes a few years to flower again.

This one has been at the gardens for 7 years and this is the first flower.