Rapid Fire
Titan Arum Flower
- 14 Nov 2024
- 1 min read
Recently, the Titan Arum flower, one of the world's largest flowers, bloomed in Australia. It grows over 10 feet tall and blooms once a decade.
- Structure: It has a tall, pale yellowish phallic structure rising from the centre.
- The base of the flower has a 'corm’ which is an underground energy-storing structure that supports its 10 year bloom cycle and 6-month fruiting period.
- Uniqueness: It mimics the stench of rotting flesh to attract its pollinators — carnivorous bees and flies that feed on corpses.
- Pollination by flies on rotten meat-smelling plants is called Sapromyophily.
- Habitat: It blossoms on limestone hills in the rainforests of western Sumatra, Indonesia. It doesn’t bloom in the wild in Australia.
- IUCN Status: The species has fewer than 1,000 individuals left in the wild, and is listed as ‘endangered’.
- Other Similar Flowers: Rafflesia arnoldi (largest individual flower in the world), Dracunculus vulgaris, Stapelia gigantea, Hydnora africana and Helicodiceros muscivorus.
