A “Corpse” Comes to Life

By Awake! correspondent in INDONESIA

ON JULY 17, 1997, an unusual announcement was made on the national evening news in Indonesia. One of the largest floral structures in the world had blossomed. Why would the mere blossoming of a plant be judged a worthy topic for the evening news? Because this plant is different—it may blossom for just two or three days three or four times in its 40-year life span. After the announcement the number of visitors to the Bogor Botanical Garden, where the plant is kept, increased by 50 percent. In fact, the plant had upwards of 20,000 visitors in just one day!

The plant’s full botanical name is Amorphophallus titanum. Some call it titan arum for short, but most Indonesians call it the corpse flower because the odor it produces when it blossoms reminds them of the corpse of a rotting fish or of a decaying mouse. The putrid odor signals to pollinating bees that the flower is in bloom.

Besides its distinctive odor, another thing that makes the titan arum unique is its size. The mature plant towers over all but the tallest of humans. One plant in Bogor Botanical Garden grew to be 8 feet [2.5 m] tall and emerged from a huge vase-shaped, pleated spathe 8.5 feet [2.6 m] in diameter. This floral giant developed from a tuber that weighed nearly 220 pounds [100 kg]!

In spite of the enormous size of its blossom, titan arum cannot boast the world’s largest flower because the plant is really composed of, not one, but numerous small flowers.

The titan arum is but another example that illustrates the truthfulness of the psalmist’s statement: “Many things you yourself have done, O Jehovah my God, even your wonderful works . . . There is none to be compared to you.”—Psalm 40:5.