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'Tiny the Titan'
Amorphophallus titanum
Titan Arum or 'Corpse Flower'
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​Amongst our large collections of plants we have
many unusual and rare specimens that give us great joy
and reward when they mature and flower.
One of our most prized and admired plants is a
Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum)
we nicknamed ‘Tiny the Titan’
because of the impressively huge leaf it produces.
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During the past 8 years Tiny has produced 4 massive leaves 3 metres tall and almost as wide. On December 28, 2016, Tiny opened an impressive 1.8 metre x 1.2 metre flower that amazed over 10,000 visitors to Collectors Corner during the bud and flowering stage. Tiny's bulb at the time was 15kgs.
Tiny is now a fully mature Titan over 20 years old
with a corm currently weighing over 35kg and has recently produced its second flower which
opened on 13 March 2025 ( see pic at left).
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Thousands of visitors came to see Tiny and marvel at this incredible specimen. A live video feed enabled many more people to view Tiny from tiny bud to full bloom. Pollen was collected and we are hoping we will have
many more Tinys in coming years.
​ Watch a time lapse video of
four days in the life of Tiny here:​
​Then read below for further information
about this fascinating plant. ​​​​
'CASPER'
Another of our Titan Arums that has been growing in our state of the art glasshouse
recently opened its first flower on January 9th 2025.
Casper’s complete flowering process was followed by thousands of people
via Facebook and a live video feed, with many visitors lining up in person to
see Casper during the bud and flowering stage.
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​CASPER in January 2025:
AMORPHOPHALLUS TITANUM
This amazing species of Titan Arum is native to rainforests of western Sumatra, Indonesia and is famous
for having the largest unbranched inflorescence (flowering structure) in the world. The largest recorded
flower was over 3.1 metres tall. These plants are currently classed as endangered due to deforestation,
land degradation and being used as a food source, with less than 1000 still in the wild.
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The inflorescence grows quite rapidly at 10-15cm or more per day and consists of a tall, creamy-coloured spadix of flowers wrapped by a burgundy-coloured spathe, somewhat like a large petal.
The spadix is hollow and near the bottom, hidden from view inside the sheath of the spathe,
the spadix bears two rings of hundreds of small flowers; one female and one male,
with the female flowers opening first and the male ones a day or so later.
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As the spathe gradually opens, the spadix heats up to 38 °C (100 °F), releasing a powerful odour to attract insects from many hundreds of metres away, such as blow flies, sap beetles and carrion beetles which feed on or lay their eggs in rotting meat. This plant is commonly known as the ‘Corpse flower’ due to the pungent smell being reminiscent of rotting flesh.
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After flowering, the inflorescence will die back and the plant will then be dormant for a period before producing an individual leaf approximately each year or two for the next 7 – 10 years, storing the energy needed for the next flowering cycle. A large underground tuber/corm stores the food produced by photosynthesis, and provides the energy needed for such a massive inflorescence. The corm continues
to grow for 30 plus years and can eventually reach up to 120kg or more.
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Normally only botanical gardens have the resources to bring a Titan arum plant to maturity and flower, with the most noted being the Eden Project in England where they have produced a flower almost 3 metres tall. They have a large collection of mature plants so can have several flowers opening each year.
Collectors Corner is very fortunate in that we now have a few Titan Arums in various stages of growth
and we hope that over the next few years our other Titans will start their flowering cycle !
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Tiny in December 2016:
