Amorphophallus titanum

Titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ) in the United States Botanic Garden, Washington DC, November 20, 2005

The titan arum or titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ) is an indigenous plant species on Sumatra, belongs to the family of the Araceae ( Araceae ). It produces the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom. The up to 2 meters high flower secretes as required by the jungle carrion and thus attracts carrion beetles and rove beetles, which provide for their pollination.

• 6.1 Notes and references

Description

Vegetative characteristics

The titan arum is a herbaceous plant which is one of the world's largest flower and the so-called Kesselfallklamm flowers. What age they can reach is not known. The plant consists of a tuber as Überdauerungsorgan, which forms a single fallen leaf on a regular basis and in the foliage leafless state forms an inflorescence. As long as it has the foliage leaf - it remains 12 to 20 Month - nutrients are built and stored in the tuber. The tuber thereby takes significantly to ground. So had a copy of that flourished Easter 2011 in the Botanical Garden of Basel, before increases in the approximately 15-month growing season, the tuber mass of 8 to 24.5 kg. After a growth period followed by a rest phase, in which the leaf dies and wither the roots of the tuber. It then closes again a vegetation phase. For the flowering stage can be reached, the bulb must weigh at least 20 kg.

The only large deciduous leaf is divided into petiole and leaf blade and is reminiscent in shape to a small tree with umbrella-shaped crown. The long petiole has white spots to simulate lichen growth. The leaf blade is divided several times.

Generative features

The Titan Arum is monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ). The inflorescence of the titan arum flower is from a biological perspective, the world's largest flower. The actual, relatively small flowers sit - female below the male - wrapped at the base of the inflorescence and are from a single, very large bract ( spathe ). The upper part of the inflorescence ( spadix ) is greatly extended and attracted by the smell of pollinating insects ( Osmophor ) to.

Were no flowers pollinated inflorescence atrophied after three days; the plant goes into a resting phase to which is then followed by a vegetation phase. However, flowers were pollinated mature within 8 months zoom orange-red berries. As a result, the plant dies.

Indonesian common name for this species are bunga bunga suweg raksasa or generally bangkai ( carrion, corpse flower); it is found only on Sumatra. Many botanical gardens, such as in Bogor on Java, cultivate this species, but the Blühereignis occurs only very irregularly every five to ten years.

Synecology

To attract insects such as carrion beetles of the genus Diamesus and rove beetles of the genus Creophilus, enter the inflorescences from an unpleasant for people carrion. The animals creep into the spathe down to lay their eggs, and in this way secure pollination. However, the larvae die of starvation after hatching. For the foul odor of the flowering plant a number of sulfur-containing compounds and amines is responsible, these include dimethyl disulfide, dimethyl trisulfide, putrescine and cadaverine.

History

Amorphophallus titanum is one of the most spectacular phenomena in the plant world. In the West it was known by the Florentine botanist Odoardo Beccari, who during an expedition in Atjer Mantior in Sumatra on August leaves and a fruiting plant 6 and on September 5, saw a flowering specimen in 1878. Beccari sent some tubers and seeds to Florence. The tubers were destroyed, but a few seeds germinated, and of these some seedlings were sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London. There came a plant specimen in 1889, eleven years after its discovery, for the first time outside of their tropical homeland to blossom. Already in November 1878, the year of discovery, Beccari announced his extraordinary discovery in the Gardeners Chronicle and named the plant Conophallus titanum. Giovanni Arcangeli was this kind in 1879 its currently valid scientific names.

Records

The record currently holds the world's largest flower, the titan arum Wilhelma, the Zoological and Botanical Gardens in Stuttgart, whose inflorescence reached a height of 2.94 meters in October 2005. The previous record held since 2003, the Titan Arum the Botanical Gardens in Bonn with 2.74 meters. The flowering of the Titan Arum Wilhelma in 2008 to pursue via webcam, the updated image every minute, just as the bloom on April 30, 2009 at the Botanical Garden in Berlin.

In the Botanical Garden Bonn in 2006 there were the first Titan Arum outside their home, the Indonesian jungle, which spawned three inflorescences simultaneously. The about 117 kg tuber had produced a record bloom in 2003, and after 2006 it flourished again in 2009.

Another Titan Arum, which could also be observed via webcam, bloomed to Easter 2011 in the Botanical Garden of the University of Basel. Since 8 October 2012, the same plant operating then again a revival, which merged on 18 November 2012. A Wiedererblühen in such a short time interval has never been observed.

In March 2012, the spectacle in the Botanical Garden of the University of Kiel was observed. In July 2013 the 50th anniversary of the tropics flourished greenhouses in the park planet un Blomen another Titan Arum in the Botanical Garden in Hamburg, which was also observed live via webcam.

The so far last flowering of a Titan Arum in the German-speaking countries was at the Botanical Garden Leipzig, whose inflorescence brought it of 17 August 2013, a height of at least 197 cm.

Others

• The German name titan arum is sometimes used for other, closely related species, also with very large inflorescences, for example, the konjac root ( Amorphophallus konjac ).

• While the Titan Arum is referred to as the largest flower in the world, the plant species Puya raimondii forms with approximately eight meters in height the largest branched inflorescence, the largest single flower is produced arnoldii on the type Rafflesia.

Swell

• The Titan Arum data sheet of the Botanical Gardens Bonn. ( Description section )
• Flower at the botanical garden Berlin in May 2011. (Section Description )