In pictures: Blooming titan arum
Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is flowering again here at Kew for the first time in two years.
It is an exceptional event of enormous size, stunning colours, and awful smells.
Native to the Sumatran rainforest of Indonesia, titan arum is also known as ‘bunga bangkai’ or ‘corpse flower’ due to the foul stench of rotting flesh it emits when in bloom to attract flies and carrion beetles for pollination.
A large underground tuber stores the food produced by the titan arum's tree-like leaf in photosynthesis and provides energy for the massive inflorescence to grow.
By 21 April, the underground tuber had sent out a bud. Its bracts were burgundy-coloured with greyish-green blotches, resembling lichen, all with a metallic sheen.
