The beautiful Amorphophallus titanium, or Titan Arum, is a very beautiful flower, as you can see by its giant purple bloom. It’s one of the rarest flowers in the world, found only in the jungles of Sumatra. When it blooms, it’s noteworth for a few reasons. First of all, it blooms only very rarely in the wild and even less often in cultivation. Second of all, it reeks of rotted meat. That’s why the Titan Arum is also called the corpse flower, and Western Illinois University’s Botany Gardens are about to stink like crazy as their Titan Arum is set to bloom this week.
The flower’s interesting scent is all part of its survival mechanism. The plant uses carrion insects and dung beetles in order to pollinate, hence the smell of death. As for why the plants bloom so rarely, part of that has to do with their gigantic size. The WIU plant is a small one as the Titan Arum goes, and it’s still nearly four feet tall (and growing as we speak). In the wild, the plant can get 20 feet tall and 14 feet wide!
Tags: corpse flower to bloom, rare flowers, rare plants, Amorphophallus titanium, Titan Arum, world’s smelliest flower, Western Illinois University Botany Gardens, Western Illinois University, rotting meat smell
