Below is our old Amorphophallus video from a year ago. If you watch the two videos and you see how much the Titan Arum has grown!
Amorphophallus species give you some of the weirdest and most amazing plants on our planet. There are 200 species, many of which are in cultivation. They vary in size from small to the largest of all inflorescenses!! They are tropical and sub-tropical tuberous herbaceous plants from Asia, Africa and Australia. The Amorphophallus Genus belongs to the Arum Family called Araceae.
The Dutch botanist who named it had a sense of humour because the name is derived from the Greek ‘Amorpho’ meaning misshapen and ‘phallos’ meaning penis. They all have a spadix that could be interpreted this way. The spadix is typically wrapped in a oval shaped spathe. They all have a tuber of varying shapes and sizes. They all deciduous but that does not necessarily coincide with winter. The roots and the main shoot both come out of the top of the tuber. The leaf stem is a single patterned trunk – that’s why you often hear them called Snake Lillies. The leaf is a single multi pronged item which is a feature in itself. They will flower and grow in light shade right through to full sun.
When the tuber reaches flowering size it will produce one of the amazing flowers. They do not flower every year and this frequency will vary with the species. eg the huge Titan Arum may be big enough to flower after 8 years in Brisbane conditions. In other places they have been known to repeat flower in 3-4 years time. Their largest ‘flower’ has been measured at over 3m tall!! This huge inflorescence however is not its true flower. The true flowers are very small and often hidden under the spathe.
Seed & Propagation
The flower will let out a dead meat odor to attract insect pollinators. This smell is highly exaggerated in the media but in an enclosed hot space it will build up. After fertilisation, seeds will be a few or a few hundred attached to a part of the spadix remaining after the flower dies off….the seeds will be inside a small fruit. New plants can be grown from the seed. Sometimes a tuber will divide itself. They can be grown from a leaf cutting with difficulty.
These plants are easy to look after. Keep in a well drained mix. There can be a risk of the tuber rotting when wet over winter/spring so don’t let it be continually wet and boggy when deciduous. Pot up gradually to accommodate the tuber.