Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney, Australia

Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW

Titan Arum — Amorphophallus titanum

Fascinating Facts about the Titan Arum

  • The huge flower can reach up to 2.9 m in height
  • It first opens at night, and becomes so hot it steams.
  • Its heat and foul scent deceive carcass-eating insects into visiting the flower and pollinating it.
  • It only lasts about 3 days before collapsing.
  • It grows up from an underground tuber which may weigh up to 100 kg and which can stay dormant for 1–3 years.
  • The tuber produces only one leaf at a time; the leaf can be as much as 6 m tall and 4.5 m wide.
  • The tuber produces leaf and flower at different times.

For more facts have a look at our Titan Arum fact sheet.

Where does the Titan Arum grow?

natural distirbution

Amorphophallus titanum occurs naturally in a few locations in Sumatera, Indonesia. However, you may be lucky enough to see a plant in flower at:

arrowKebun Raya Bogor (West Java)
arrowCibodas (Cipanas, West Java)
arrowPurwodadi (Pasuruan, East Java)
arrowEka Karya (Bedugul, Bali)
arrowThe Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney
arrowOther botanic gardens in Europe and North America  

Factors contributing to the threat of extinction of the Titan Arum

  • Over-collection from wild populations for horticultural purposes
  • Habitat destruction — occurring through much of Indonesia at an alarming rate,
  • Ecosystem breakdown — loss of pollinators and seed distributors, due to poaching and loss of habitat,
  • Vandalism of plants in the wild.

Saving Amorphophallus titanum — what can we do?

Kebun Raya Bogor and the Botanic Gardens Trust are collaborating in a project to propagate the Titan Arum — we hope eventually to be able to supply the demand for tubers and so stop wild harvesting.
YOU can help —

  • DO NOT collect or damage plants in the forest.
  • DO NOT buy animals or birds, such as hornbills, that have been poached from the forest — they help to pollinate the flowers and disperse the seed of many plants.
  • DO JOIN a conservation group to learn more and to try and influence others.
  • Try to buy plantation timber so as to save the Titan Arum's habitat.
  • If you would like to support us with the Royal Botanic Gardens - Kebun Raya Bogor collaborative conservation project.

Collaborating to propagate Amorphophallus titanum

Since Janurary 2001 the Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney, and Bogor Botanic Gardens, Indonesia, have collaborated to develop propagating protocols for the conservation of the Titan Arum Amorphophallus titanum.

  • so far this project has resulted in extensive surveys of plants in Sumatera
  • the development of an educational brochure on the plant and threats to its survival in the wild
  • propagation trials at both gardens encompassing staff training in a variety of propagation techniques.

Further work envisaged for the project include an educational program for south and west Sumateran schools located in the areas where Amorphophallus titanum is know to occur, using this fascinating plant as a flagship for the conservation of forests in this region.

Kebun Raya Bogor and the Botanic Gardens Trust are committed to the conservation, reintroduction, cultivation and utilisation of Amorphophallus titanum according to the principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Project Sponsors

arrowAustralia-Indonesia Institute
arrowBogor Botanic Garden - LIPI
arrowBotanic Gardens Trust
arrowFriends of The Gardens
arrowSeeds donated by the Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

  



Titan Arum with leaf 
Titan Arum with one mature leaf.

Titan Arum 'flower' 
Titan Arum flower growing in the Kebun Raya at Bogor in Indonesia
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