Titan Arum

(From Odyssey, March 2003 v12 i3 p28(3), available in Kids InfoBits)

It must be a Titan arum – the world's largest and stinkiest flower cluster! The Titan is a rare plant from the hot, humid rain forests of Sumatra in Indonesia, near the equator. "Titan" means giant, and that's what this plant is! Its bloom can tower three meters tall (ten feet) and stretch 1.2 meters wide (four feet). But only the very lucky ever see one. Some Titans go decades without blooming.

The Titan was discovered in Sumatra by Italian botanist Dr. Odoardo Beccari in 1878. He sent some of its seeds back to Italy; later, some of these were sent to England's Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. When the Garden's plant bloomed in 1889, proper Londoners were offended by its stench! But when the plant bloomed again in 1926, so many people came to see it (and smell it) that police had to direct the crowds.

The Titan first came to America shortly after that. Scientists now travel to Sumatra to obtain seeds for botanic gardens and universities. But growing Titans outside their natural habitat isn't easy. Titans have bloomed fewer than 25 times in the U.S.

The plant starts as a tuber, a fat stem that grows underground, like a potato. But even when it's small, the Titan's still a giant! A tuber can weigh more than 75 kilograms (170 pounds) and be 1.3 meters wide (4.5 feet)! Big tubers need big spaces, too. England's Kew Gardens planted theirs in one ton of dirt.

While a Titan tuber rarely blooms, it does usually produce what looks like a small tree. It's really a "Titan-size," branched leaf that can rise six meters high (20 feet) and extend 4.5 meters wide (15 feet), like a giant umbrella. After about a year, the leaf dies and the tuber rests for its next growth spurt. Then it produces another leaf or, occasionally, a bloom.

After a bud appears, the Titan grows really fast – up to 12 to 15 centimeters (five to six inches) a day. The spadix, a yellowish spike, grows the fastest and can shoot up to three meters high (ten feet). About the time the spadix reaches its full height, the spathe opens. The spathe looks like a big, meter-wide (three- to four-foot-wide), frilly petal surrounding the spadix. It's yellowish-green on the outside and a beautiful deep maroon inside.

In nature, Titans work hard to attract insects because the bugs bring them pollen from other Titans. Guess how they attract them? By being big and smelly! Their huge size makes sure bugs can see them, and their disgusting odor draws the creepy crawlies from miles around! Carrion beetles and sweat bees love the Titans' stink, which some people have described as the stench of rotting meat or even excrement! (Thankfully, this flower will never be made into a perfume!) The Titan's odor is so strong, some people smell it from 50 meters (about 50 yards) away – that's half a football field!