Amorphophallus titanum (Titan Arum) about to bloom in Belgium

[Sabien]

This is the weird-flower-weekend, I guess.
We went to the Belgian National Botanic Garden today. Since April they have 2 Titan Arums from a botanical garden in Bonn (Germany). Contrary to the expectations, one decided to start growing a flower. It's growing very rapidly as you can see in the pictures (1" = 2.54cm).
The Titan Arum is the largest flower of the world and it's the first time it will bloom on Belgian soil.
For those who have never heard of this plant, have a look at this link:

YouTube - Attenborough - Titan Arum

It's a very nice explanation of its how and why.

[solay]

The link isn't working but is that one of those stinky plants that smell like rotten flesh when it blooms? They had one of those in bloom here in San Francisco but I didn't get a chance to see it. It's a very neat plant for sure. Will you go back to see it open?

[jbigio]

WOW very interesting

[Sabien]

Sorry the link isn't working. I'm not good at these things.
If you search on youtube with "attenborough - titan arum", I'm sure the film will come up. I have a link from the website of the Botanical Garden and that's working.
It's really worth looking at to understand the plant better.

I'm hoping to go back later this week when the flower has opened, but I'm not sure I'll be able to. They're expecting it to open on Wednesday and it only flowers for 3 days.
Yes, it's a stinky flower but only when it's open. So we didn't smell anything today. They say the "aroma" is a combination of rotting meat and fish that's gone off. Hence it's nickname corpse flower.

[kid a]

Wow that is soo coool!