Bruised carcass flower breaks record

Bruised carcass flower breaks record

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

The carcass flower Amorphophallus titanum at the Cibodas
Botanical Garden in Bogor bloomed late on Thursday, its solitary
spadix reaching a height of 3.17 meters, while the diameter of
the magenta spathe was about 1.54 meters.

"It breaks the world record," head of the park, Holif
Immanudin, said on Friday.

The Environmental Literacy Council recorded that the same
flower species at the Botanical Gardens of the University of
Bonn, Germany, bloomed to the height of 2.74 meters on May 22,
2003.

The perfect bloom was not expected because visitors had hurled
stones at the flower, bruising the spadix that earlier this week
reached a height of only at 2.85 meters.

The upper part of the spadix had to be sliced off because it
showed signs of decay as a result of the damage it suffered.

Although the carcass flower blooms triennially, it stays in
full bloom for less than a day, after which the flower shrivels
up.

Holif expressed hope that all visitors to the gardens would be
committed to protecting the garden's collection of near extinct
flowers and plants.

"We should be proud that we have succeeded in salvaging two of
the world's gigantic flowers: the Amorphophallus titanum and
Raflesia arnoldi, which are native to Sumatra island," Holif
said.