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.