Berlin celebrates the blooming of its giant arum, the largest and worst-smelling flower

Salvador Martínez Mas

Berlin, June 30 (EFE) - Berlin's Botanical Garden is experiencing special days with the blooming of its giant arum, or Amorphophallus titanum. This plant is very unusual because it has grown to over two meters tall, only produces flowers in periods interrupted by several years, and, above all, emits a strong, unpleasant odor.

The giant ring is "proof that not all beautiful plants smell good," says the arboretum in the German capital, which saw how this morning the shocking scent of Amorphophallus titanum spread through the large greenhouse of what is the largest botanical garden in Germany and one of the largest in the world.

"Today is a big day for us because since noon yesterday we've seen the plant beginning to open up, its top leaf splitting open and releasing its carrion smell," Thorsten Laute, head gardener at the Berlin Botanical Garden, told EFE.

This flowering process hasn't occurred at the German capital's arboretum since 2018, when another giant arum blossomed in what has been described as "one of the most spectacular events in the plant kingdom."

The plant flowers through a plant structure that groups flowers called inflorescence in botany.

"We're very happy because it's taken many years for the plant to flower," Laute said, standing next to the giant flowering arum and facing a line of Botanical Garden visitors that stretched for a good hundred meters inside the greenhouse.

"corpse plant"

Many visitors commented on the plant's smell, with some children telling their parents that it "stunk," although the worst was over, as this flower only emits its strongest odor in the first few hours after opening, which is why it is also known as the "corpse plant."

"The strong odor comes through, especially on the first night, with a carrion scent to attract insects interested in laying their eggs on a corpse," Laute explained, explaining the strategy this plant uses to pollinate and be pollinated.

At about 2.36 meters tall, the flowering stage of the plant, also known as the "world's largest flower," is expected to last until midweek, as the plant's bloom only lasts three days, according to the Berlin Botanical Garden, which celebrated this height as a record.

A flower up to three meters long

"It's the largest giant hoop we've ever had in Berlin. The previous largest was in 2011, when it measured 1.99 meters. Now, 2.36 meters is very special. In nature, it can grow up to 3 meters, and its tuber has weighed up to 100 kilos," Laute explained.

This exotic Berlin plant, recently in bloom, weighed about 32 kilos the last time it was weighed on the scale, according to Laute, a head gardener still amazed by an unpredictable flowering process that can take years to prepare and, once triggered, ends in, at most, three days.

The plant draws its resources from this tuber to grow as it has in Berlin, and botanists estimate that its growth rate can reach up to fifteen centimeters per day.

A plant native to Sumatra and Java

The flowering Berlin arum arrived in the German capital three years ago from Frankfurt, and this is the first time it has bloomed in the eastern German metropolis.

As a species, giant arums are native to the western parts of the islands of Sumatra and Java, and were discovered in 1878 by the Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari.

In Berlin's Botanical Garden, and in many other world capitals, giant rings are one of the main attractions, especially when they bloom. EFE

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