Looking Back on the Corpse Flower

Deep in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, grows one of nature’s most astonishing and rare botanical wonders: Amorphophallus titanum, commonly known as the Bunga Bangkai (Indonesian), Titan Arum or Corpse Flower. 

This striking plant, famed for its enormous bloom and its infamous stench, has captured the imagination of scientists, conservationists, and plant enthusiasts worldwide. Its fleeting flowerings, dramatic in both size and spectacle, are a testament to the intricacies of plant evolution and the challenges of global biodiversity conservation.

The Titan Arum’s bloom, which can reach over three meters in height, is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The plant’s common name derives from the putrid odour emitted during its flowering period, likened to rotting flesh, which serves to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies for pollination. But beyond its size and smell, the Titan Arum is a symbol of the fragility of the ecosystems it calls home. Native to the diminishing rainforests of Sumatra, its survival is increasingly threatened by habitat destruction caused by deforestation, logging, and agricultural expansion, palm oil production and illegal plant trade.

Efforts to conserve Amorphophallus titanum have gone global, with botanical gardens playing a critical role in raising awareness and preserving this extraordinary species. Cultivating the titan arum outside its natural habitat presents significant challenges due to its complex growth cycle and specific environmental needs. However, success stories in cultivation have become headline-grabbing events, drawing thousands of visitors to witness the rare bloom of the Corpse Flower. 

The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney successfully bloomed its own Titan arums in 2004, 2006 (twice, just weeks apart), 2008 and 2010.

Garden staff meticulously recreated the plant’s native conditions, nurturing it through its unpredictable life cycle—a cycle that includes years of vegetative growth, starting as a tiny tuber, before a flowering event which lasts for only 24-48 hours. The 2004 flowering marked the first time a Titan arum had bloomed in the Southern Hemisphere, drawing more than 18,000 visitors in just three days.

With much excitement, our Nursery staff announced in late December 2024 that they had observed a bloom forming in our glasshouse. Over the next 18 days that bloom would grow at a rapid 10cm per day, reaching over 1.6m in height. To ensure our visitors could witness the bloom, our staff carefully relocated the top-heavy behemoth to our heritage Palm House, established in 1876. 

As Sophie Daniel, Manager of Interpretation & Placemaking, explained the team created “a right royal display inspired by Queen Victoria’s funeral, crossed with a little shop of horrors, a little homage to David Lynch, some gothic funeral parlour vibes and a dash of vintage side show”. 

 

Putricia, as she was known, looked like she was lying in state with visitors approaching down a red carpet. Our incredible teams and volunteers supported a rapid influx of visitors as her flowering drew crowds of more than more than 27,000 people, many who queued late into the night to see her.

A livestream of the botanical phenomenon drew in more than 1.7 million views from all over the planet and unprecedented media attention across the globe reached millions more. 

During the first night of her short bloom, the busy glasshouse became an operating theatre as Alyse Baume (Conservation Horticulturist) delicately sliced a square into Putricia’s spathe and used a paintbrush covered in donated pollen to hand fertilise in the hopes of producing seed.

On the second night of her bloom the focus shifted to collecting her maturing pollen, which oozed from sacs concealed beneath her spathe. The pollen was raced to the Australian PlantBank at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan and slid into cold storage to ensure its maximum viability. 

The bloomings are more than just momentous — they are critical in supporting international effort to conserve this species. 

They allow Titan arums to be pollinated and new seed to be collected to distribute to other botanic gardens, much like zoos distribute animals around the globe as part of global conservation efforts. The Titan Arum is just one of more than 12,000 species the Botanic Garden of Sydney’s Living Collection supports. 

In this instance, Putricia has helped us to spotlight the plight of Sumatran rainforests and the broader challenges of protecting biodiversity in the face of climate change and human encroachment. High profile flowerings like these also contribute to global research efforts, providing valuable data on the plant’s reproductive biology and pollination ecology. This flower has brought together our curious plant-minded community and many who never realised plants could be so cool. 

It has created much needed dialogue in plant conservation, generated significant donations and hopefully inspired a new generation of scientists.  

Beyond public fascination, the Titan arum serves as a rallying point for conservation. Botanic Gardens across the globe are working to secure its future by promoting habitat protection and cultivating awareness about the interconnectedness of all life and exchanging genetics to ensure the most successful outcomes for Titan arums. Meanwhile, local initiatives in Indonesia aim to preserve the Bunga Bangkai’s rainforest home, advocating for sustainable land-use practices and the establishment of protected areas.

As the Titan arum continues to bloom in botanical gardens around the world, it reminds us of the extraordinary diversity of life on Earth and the urgent need to conserve it. 

 

Each flowering is not just a botanical event but a call to action: a reminder of what we stand to lose if we fail to protect our planet’s most vulnerable ecosystems.