Titan History

Florentine botanist and explorer Dr. Odoardo Beccari must have thought
he was dreaming when he discovered the Amorphophallus Titanum while
exploring the Indonesian island of Sumatra in 1878. Beccari sent seeds
back to Europe and a young plant eventually found a home at Royal
Botanic Gardens in Kew, England. It was here that the first cultivated
titan arum flowered in 1889.

Our titan arum bulb was donated to the Myriad Botanical Gardens on July
13, 2000 by Baltimore physician Clark T. Riley after visiting the
Crystal Bridge. The horticulture staff has taken diligent care of the
plant over the past 5 years.

Titum arum is called the corpse flower because the bloom smells like
rotting flesh when it's ready to be pollinated. The offensive odor
lasts only eight hours and the bloom is expected to last two to three
days. In the wild, the plant is believed to be pollinated by large
carrion beetles.