Titan Arum: The World's Largest and Rarest Flower

ECOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT

TITAN ARUM FLOWER

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.

ABOUT

• 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.