Ever heard the name Amorphophallus titanum? Not me, anyway - but when I saw a photo of this particular plant, I remembered reading newspaper articles about the rare event of its blooming in a botanical garden.
Why, in order to see a nearly faded plant, we paid quite a bit of money and made our way across the jungle to this rarity in the heat and danger of severe weather - I'll be happy to tell you. 😊
The German name of this plant is Titanenwurz and it is native to Sumatra. There are about 200 different species of the genus Amorphophallus plants. The titanic root is known to have the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. But what makes this plant even more special is its path to flowering.
The Titanwort has a tuber that is 20 to 35 cm underground, which can weigh over 100kg in old plants. This plant can produce either one leaf or one inflorescence in one growing season. This one leaf can grow taller than a human and splits - so visually it resembles more of a sapling. The leaf can persist for several years.

When the leaf dies, it thereby provides the nutrients for the growth of the tuber. Only when the tuber has reached a minimum size, it can form a flower, which can grow between 2 and 3m high. To form such a large flower requires a lot of energy. If it is not pollinated and withers, the plant must first gather enough energy to bloom again - and this can take years. Another peculiarity is that when this plant blooms, it smells extremely bad. With this smell, the plant wants to attract insects for pollination.
When we arrived in Sumatra, we still had a free day on which we had not yet planned anything. Our guide, who then accompanied us on the jungle trekking, told us about this plant. The rarity of a flower (according to his information, this plant blooms only about every 7 years) and the other peculiarities, which I have just described, have convinced us to make this hike.
The starting point of the hike was 30 minutes outside Bukit Lawang. There we met a guide who is only specialized in this plant. Yes heard correctly - this plant is something so special that there are people who have specialized only on it. They make daily rounds and check all the plants, see if they are doing well and observe which of the plants will bloom soon. As soon as a flower appears, the plants are then covered with tarpaulins to protect them from animals. Then comes the time when the job is most rewarding monetarily - to lead tourists over hill and dale across the jungle to have this unique experience.
When I write "over hill and dale", I mean it. Of course, this plant does not choose a nice place right next to a nice hiking trail to grow or to bloom. The plant we went to was in the middle of nowhere. We walked cross-country, partly climbed uphill, downhill slid a lot because the ground was very wet on top of that and that at a pace which is inhuman at this humidity. After about 45 minutes of walking we finally reached the plant - and I must say it was worth it.

This magnificent plant (yes I thought it was still magnificent even though it was already fading) was like from another world to me. It was so special to be able to see this life-size plant.


When we arrived back to the starting point of the hike, our T-shirts were completely sweaty and we went straight home for a shower. But the effort was worth it anyway 😊
Which plant has impressed you a lot while traveling?
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