Slovenia Travel Blog

We just called the attention as if we see it in the middle of the desert, in the middle of the abyss. Because the chip is active curiosity in humans when it comes to knowing “the world’s largest”, whether it concerned. No matter who is the tallest hotel , the largest ice cave and the widest waterfall in the world. We want to know what is. There is always a place for our curiosity, even for flowers. This time he takes the cake, because the same thing is crowned with two guiness, to the greatest and most foul, although the latter is less objectified, but all agree on it.

It has different names: the giant ring, bunga bangkai, or its scientific name, Amorphophallus titanum, literally “amorphous titanic phallus.” It is a herbaceous plant typical of the tropical forests of Sumatra (Indonesia), but is grown elsewhere in the world. Easily reached nearly three meters in height (double a person), but this is not its main feature. The flowers of these plants give off a foul odor and unpleasant smell very close to putrefaction, the body of a dead in half of its decomposition. So for those who know this side of him, also called “corpse flower” or “corpse plant”. That fetid smell of rotting flesh prevents be near her for long. The function of this unpleasant smell is to attract pollinating insects to take charge of the exchange of pollen necessary for reproduction, attracting flies that seek bodies in which to deposit their eggs, which will then saprophagous larvae. The flower, after pollinated, it becomes a soft red or yellow.

The plant consists of a root surface, from which springs a single stem up to 1 m long, which in turn has a single leaf and a flower stalk. Its flowering is an event, for only the last three or four times in the forty years that the plant normally lives. Once you begin to see the inflorescence (a channel-shaped, green outside and red inside) grows at a rate of 10 cm a day to an average of 2 feet in height and weighing 75 kg. After that, the flower only lives for 3 days.

It was discovered in 1878 in the jungles of Sumatra, by the Italian botanist Beccari Odoardo, and the first specimen grown at Kew was achieved (United Kingdom) in 1889. The largest specimens grown so far are those of the Botanical Garden of Bonn (Germany, 2.74 m), Wageningen (Holanda. 2.67 m), Bogor (Indonesia. 2.61 m), New York (USA. 2.57 m).