Amorphophallus titanium. Amorphophallus titanic is a beautiful plant with a bad smell. What are amorphophallus

Amorphophallus is a striking flower that belongs to the Aroid family. It can be found on the plains of tropical and subtropical Africa and the Pacific Islands. The plant can be tiny or exceed human height. In various countries, amorphophallus is called "voodoo lily", "devil's flower", "corpse flower", "snake palm". Its unusual inflorescences, despite their beauty, exude a very unpleasant odor. And yet, there are not so few connoisseurs of the beauty of amorphophallus. You can buy it or order tubers in any major city. In order for the plant to reveal itself in all its beauty, the rules of care and life cycles should be followed.

Botanical description

Amorphophallus is a perennial tuberous plant. Its height depends on the species and can range from 80 cm to 5 m. There are both evergreen varieties and plants with a dormant period. The rounded tuber is covered with wrinkled skin. Its average weight is 5-8 kg, but there are also heavier specimens.

A petiolate leaf emerges from the top of the tuber. Most often it is one, but up to 3 pieces can appear. The smooth or rough petiole is distinguished by its great thickness and strength. The leaf lives only one year. It appears after the death of the flower. The dark green leaf is covered with a reticulate vein pattern. Every year the leaves become taller and larger, and the leaf plate takes on a more dissected shape. Gradually, the foliage reaches several meters in diameter.

After a dormant period, the flower appears first. It is more correct to call it an inflorescence. An elongated ear of irregular shape is partially hidden under a huge veil. It is held by a short but thick peduncle. The corrugated bedspread rolls up into an oval tube or falls partially. Amorphophallus are monoecious plants. On the inflorescence are male and female flowers, separated from each other by a sterile space.

During the flowering period, the amorphophallus flower exudes a very unpleasant, and sometimes simply disgusting smell. One has only to touch it, the aroma intensifies, and the temperature of the plant rises to 40 ° C. Scientists analyzed the smell and found in it chemical compounds that are characteristic of the following items:

• flavored cheeses (dimethyl trisulfide);
• excrement (indole);
• rotting fish (dimethyl disulfide);
• sugary sweetness (benzyl alcohol);
• smelly socks (isovaleric acid).

Such a specific aroma attracts flies, moths and other insects involved in the pollination of the plant. As a result, fruits are formed on the cob - miniature juicy berries with a thin skin. They are painted in white-pink, red, orange or blue. Inside are one or more oval seeds.

Types of amorphophallus

According to various sources, there are from 170 to 200 species in the genus Amorphophallus. Main types:

The plant is a real herbaceous giant. It grows up to 5 m in height. The weight of a huge tuber exceeds 20 kg. A conical cob up to 2 m high is framed by a fleshy veil with a corrugated edge. Outside, the bedspread is painted in light yellow-green shades, and inside it has a brown-burgundy color.

The tuber is flattened and is up to 20 cm in diameter. Petioles and a peduncle of dark green color with brown and whitish spots grow from it. The length of the peduncle is 60 cm, on it there is a half-meter cob with a bell-shaped veil up to 30 cm high. The inflorescence is painted in purple-burgundy color. At home, the species is rare, but it is actively cultivated in the east as a fodder plant. Its tubers are boiled and eaten, as well as dried and used as a condiment.

The plant is about 1-1.5 m high and has a single petiolate leaf. The olive leaf plate is dissected into several lobes. The petiole is covered with brown spots, and at its base is a miniature onion. The tuber is flattened, its diameter is 7-8 cm. The inflorescence 25-30 cm long is located on a thick peduncle. The cream cob hides a dirty green on the outside and a pink-yellow coverlet on the inside.

Plant life cycles

By the end of March, amorphophallus comes out of dormancy. A tuber with awakened buds is transplanted into fresh soil. The sprout develops very quickly, it needs abundant watering and regular feeding. A plant older than 5 years is able to bloom. By the end of spring, a flower blooms, it pleases with its unusual beauty for about two weeks. Some varieties hibernate immediately after flowering, while others grow leaves.

Beautiful greenery on a dense petiole resembles a palm tree. The leaf grows quickly, but persists only until August or early September. Gradually, the entire ground part dries up. At the time of rest, top dressing is stopped, and watering is limited to a few tablespoons per month. The air temperature should be maintained at +5…+7 0C. You can put the tubers in the refrigerator.

Reproduction methods

Amorphophallus propagates by seeds, division of tubers or children. At the end of the growing season, several babies are formed on the mother tuber. After the ground part has dried, the plant is dug up, freed from the soil and the children are broken off. All tubers are stored until spring in the refrigerator, in a bag with sawdust. In spring, plants are planted in pots with soil.

An adult bulb with several buds can be divided into parts. Do this in the spring, when the buds wake up and small shoots appear. The incisions are made very carefully so as not to damage the kidneys. Places of cuts are dipped in crushed charcoal. The tubers are dried in the air for a day, and then planted in the soil.

Amorphophallus is rarely grown from seeds, since this procedure is laborious and seedlings bloom in 5-7 years. Seeds should be sown in containers with a mixture of garden soil, peat moss and vermiculite. The planting depth is 7-12 mm. The containers are kept in a well-lit, warm place. Seedlings are expected within 5-15 days. In just a week, the seedlings will dissolve the first leaf.

Landing Rules

Amorphophallus tubers are transplanted in the spring every 1-2 years. The roots begin to appear in their upper part, so they land deep enough. The pot should be at least twice the size of the tuber and be stable. At the bottom of the container, it is necessary to make a hole and pour a thick layer of drainage material (expanded clay, shards, pebbles).

Land for planting should have a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction. To compile the soil mixture, the following components are used:

• leafy humus;
• sod land;
• leaf land;
• peat;
• sand.

It is useful to add some charcoal and pieces of pine bark to the ground. If the children are not separated before awakening, they form a bright shoot under the mother plant. This will not harm him, but you should take care of the free space in advance.

Features of care

Amorphophallus refers to plants with an average level of difficulty in care.

Lighting. The plant prefers bright light. It can tolerate direct sunlight in the morning and evening. Bright diffused light is needed throughout the day. In winter, to prolong daylight hours, use phytolamps.

Temperature. Normal room temperature is quite comfortable for the flower. When all the shoots are dry, you need to find a place where the thermometer shows no higher than + 10 ... + 13 ° C.

Humidity. Amorphophallus needs high humidity. Its leaf should be sprayed daily. The accumulation of moisture on the inflorescence leads to its rapid withering, therefore, during the flowering period, it is better to place pallets with wet expanded clay near the amorphophallus.

Watering. With the advent of the first shoots, watering should be plentiful and frequent. However, water should not stagnate in the soil, otherwise the tuber will rot. Between irrigations, the soil is dried by half. Do not be afraid of growth retardation due to drought, the underground part accumulates enough fluid. Amorphophallus should be watered along the edge of the pot so that water does not accumulate on the tuber. Excess liquid is immediately poured out of the pan.

Fertilizers. In March-August, the flower needs regular feeding. They are applied every 10-14 days. You should alternate organic (mullein) and mineral (phosphorus, nitrogen) top dressing. Lack of fertilizer can lead to the fact that after the flower wilts, a dormant period will come, and the leaf will not develop.

Diseases and pests. Amorphophallus tubers with excessive watering can suffer from rot. They are not destroyed, but the damaged areas are cut off, treated with ash and dried. Spraying with a fungicide will not be superfluous. The most common plant pests are nematodes, spider mites and mealybugs. Insects are treated with insecticides, and nematodes are cut out along with damaged fragments. To avoid re-infection, it is recommended to treat the soil and tubers.

Usage

Amorphophallus serves as a wonderful decoration of the garden and premises. Even without a flower, its unusual leaf attracts a lot of attention. With the advent of inflorescences, it is better to take amorphophallus to fresh air, where its intoxicating aroma will not bother you much.

Amorphophallus konjac tubers are used as food. They taste like sweet potatoes. In Japan, the product is added to soups and meat dishes. Dried tuber flour is used to make noodles and some types of tofu cheese. It also serves as the basis for many products for diabetics. It is also believed that eating amorphophallus tubers cleanses the intestines and reduces weight.

I heard that people have been going to the Washington National Botanical Garden for a week now to look at Amorphophallus titanic.
And I have it growing at home, so I don’t have to go far. Once, at work, my husband was presented with a small green flower with a stem and three leaves. Now he has not yet reached such a gigantic size, but already under 2 meters. Every year a flower is thrown away, and I have to take it to the landing to please the neighbors at the same time, so that they do not need to go to Washington to admire this exotic flower, and at the same time smell it.

It is good that it blooms for only a few days, since the smell is unbearable, something like rotting meat, and it is not without reason that it repels all insects. Then the flower falls off and a tuber remains in the tub, which in the spring throws out a green stem of three leaves. It grows very quickly and in the summer I have a palm tree on my loggia, which I will soon not know where to put. In autumn, the green trunk with leaves will fall off and such a giant flower will appear, causing both disgust and admiration at the same time.
I didn’t manage to photograph it in such a way as to really show this unique flower (I’m still the same photographer), but at least you can get an idea.

And this is a little about a flower from the Internet.

Amorphophallus (Amorphophallus) - an amazing plant of the Aroid family comes from India, China, Vietnam, Sumatra (A. konjac, A. titanum, etc.). For the appearance of the plant and the specific smell of the flower, amorphophallus is called Voodoo lily, devilish tongue, snake palm, corpse flower.

Amorphophallus belongs to the ephemeroids, that is, it is a short-lived plant (it is dormant for most of the year). It forms in the soil a tuber the size of a grapefruit and weighing about 5 kg. From the tuber leaves a thick green stem, similar to the trunk of a palm tree. One complex brownish-green leaf with white speckles, up to 1.5 m in size, develops on the trunk of the amorphophallus. The tripartite leaf blade is twice pinnate; petiole is hollow.
The leaf appears for several months a year, more often from late March to mid-October, and then turns yellow and dies off. In each next year, the leaf of amorphophallus grows slightly higher and becomes more dissected than in the previous year.

That's how scary and terrible he is. By the way, extremely unpretentious and tenacious.

Sumatra is home to many amazing animals and plants. In addition to the largest (wide) flower in the world - Rafflesia Arnold, it grows another giant of the flower world - Amorphophallus Titanium.

As soon as it is not called - “corpse lily”, “snake palm” and even “voodoo lily”, and from Latin the name of the flower is translated as “giant shapeless phallus”.

In addition to this Indonesian island, the "corpse lily" grows in some places in South and Southeast Asia, as well as in the tropical zone of Africa.

For the discovery of this flower in 1878, it is worth saying “thank you” to the Italian botanist Odoardo Bechari. After this event, the lily became the attraction of many major botanical gardens around the world. The very first flowering in captivity was recorded in 1889 in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Great Britain. In our time, indoor miniature versions of this flower are grown. But the smell is just as awful.

The largest flower of Amorphophallus Titanium reached a height of 3.3 meters and weighed 75 kilograms.

Its flower consists of a large calyx-petal and pistil-cob. A maroon inflorescence forms on the upper part of the cob, and the lower part is covered with many female and male flowers. Its huge petal has small grooves and a green-purple color.

This plant is a dormouse. It ripens for a long time in the form of a huge tuber weighing almost 50 kilograms. In early spring, a petiole begins to sprout from it. This is the first stage of flower development. At the end of the stem, a single complexly dissected leaf develops. For such a "hat" he received the name "snake palm". Then the plant sheds it and rests - after 4 months the next stage will begin.

The main flowering does not last long, only 2-3 days. But what! The flower begins to exude a disgusting smell, reminiscent of rotting meat. But this is what makes it attractive to pollinating insects. It's not all surprises. A flower can change its temperature. The stalk in the days of flowering heats up to 40 degrees.

There are many types of plants and trees in the world that are the most unusual. An excellent example was Titanic Amorphophallus (lat. Amorphophallus Titanum). This plant grows in the jungles of Sumatra and has an unpleasant smell, reminiscent of the rotten smell of fish or rotten eggs, which is why it is also called "carrion flower". Amorphophallus titanic has the largest inflorescence in the world. Have you heard about it before? Then you will be interested!

The unusual flower amorphophallus is huge, its growth can reach up to 2.5 meters in height with a weight of 75 kilograms. Therefore, it can be safely called the largest flower on earth. It has very bright, catchy colors. The shape resembles a phallus, thanks to which the flower got its name. At home, such names as "Snake Palm", "Voodoo Lily" or "Devil's Tongue" still stuck to him.

An unusual flower lives up to 40 years, but during all this time, it blooms only 3 or 4 times. Under favorable conditions, it can bloom for the first time at the age of five years. During the year, an amazing plant is transformed several times: it immediately resembles a small chestnut tree, then a giant head of lettuce, and then a huge red flower.

Voodoo Lily blooms for about two weeks. In an almost fully bloomed state, the flower lasts about 72 hours. Then the inflorescence begins to close, fade and slowly sink to the ground. After the death of the flower, one stem remains, the size of a small tree.

During flowering, due to overexpenditure of nutrients, the plant is greatly depleted. Therefore, it enters a dormant state for up to one month in order to gain strength for the further development of the leaves. But if there are not enough nutrients, then it may be in “hibernation” until next spring. During the growth period, Amorphophallus Titanic grows up to 10 cm per day.

Of course, this is not the only feature of the flower. During its growth, Amorphophallus titanic emits a fetid smell of rotten meat. Of course, this doesn't just happen. Such a smell serves to attract pollinating insects, to exchange pollen and thus makes reproduction possible. Even outwardly, the plant (dark red inflorescence) creates the illusion of "rotten meat". When Titan Arum blooms, the temperature of the cob (its uppermost part) becomes identical to the temperature of the human body, while the smell disappears more easily.

Amorphophallus Titanic was discovered in the jungles of Sumatra (west of) by the Italian botanist Odoardo in 1878. The largest specimen known to date was presented at the Botanical Garden in Bonn in 2003, which reached 2.74 meters in height.

Due to its unbearable nature, the Amorphophallus Titanic plant is extremely difficult to breed, so not every botanical garden can boast of such an exotic flower. Around the world now there are approximately 122 copies. In Germany, the plant is represented in seven cities.

Among the representatives of the flora of the tropics and subtropics there are giant and dwarf plants that strike with an unusual type of foliage, flowers and stems. The favorable climate of the Southern Hemisphere has given the world the most famous incense and flowers of unique beauty. Amorphophallus, as a representative of the aroid family, also never ceases to amaze both botanists and ordinary nature lovers.

Places of growth and features of amorphophallus

Any of the 170 species assigned to the genus Amorphophallus is worthy of a separate story, but most of them still need to be carefully studied and described. Today it is well known that many of the representatives of the genus are endemic with clear habitat boundaries. In nature, they can be found in various regions of the African, Pacific and Asian tropics. The range includes South Africa and Madagascar, the territories of Australia and nearby islands, as well as China, Japan and India, the forests of Nepal and Thailand, Vietnam, large and small archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean. Indochina is considered the birthplace of these short-lived, but in its own way amazing plants.

Amorphophalluses are more often seen in the undergrowth or on limestone rock ledges among other grass and shrubs. Above the soil, they form a dense upright trunk with a strongly dissected thrice pinnate leaf. The underground part is a massive tuber, the weight of which depends on the species.

Most of the time the plant is dormant, and flowering passes shortly before the appearance of greenery.

Titanic amorphophallus (Amorphophallus titanum)

Among amorphophallus there are plants of different sizes and shapes, but the most outstanding is rightfully called amorphophallus titanic. The species was discovered and described at the end of the 19th century by the botanist Odoardo Beccari during a trip to the western part of Sumatra.

The sight of an unknown plant startled the public. Never before have people been able to observe the flowering of a two-meter inflorescence in the form of a powerful cob framed by a juicy stipule. Not only was the size striking, but the smell emanating from the plant had nothing to do with the aroma of flowers and was unforgettable.

Today, when scientists were able to conduct a chemical analysis of the "aroma", it became clear that the natives who called amorphophallus a corpse flower were absolutely right. Among the components of the aromatic composition were:

• dimethyl trisulfide, which determines the smell of some cheeses;
• dimethyl disulfide and trimethylamine present in the smell of rotting fish;
• isovaleric acid, which comes from worn sweaty socks;
• benzyl alcohol, which gives the smell a cloying sweetness;
• indole, one of the components of the smell of excrement.

The intensity becomes stronger as the bract is greenish on the outside and purple on the inside. The “aroma” of amorphophallus, as in the photo, serves to attract pollinating insects, so its strength also changes during the day, reaching a maximum by the middle of the night.

In 1894, amorphophallus titanic was recognized as a symbol of the Indonesian Botanical Garden. Individual copies went to England and other European countries for study and demonstration to the public.

But neither the giant inflorescences nor the smell helped save this species from almost complete extermination in the wild. Almost all of the "arum titanum" known today, as David Attenborough called the plant, are specimens from botanical gardens and greenhouses. These amorphophallus have their own names and constant monitoring of development and flowering.

Thanks to careful control, it was found that a record tuber weighing 117 kg in 2006 was obtained in Germany, and an ear of 3 meters 10 cm, which was shown at an exhibition in the USA in 2010, was included in the Guinness Book of Records.

In addition to the unique cob inflorescence, which is considered the largest in the plant world, and the corm, the titanic amorphophallus has:

• quite juicy erect stem;
• the only pinnate leaf up to a meter in diameter with a variegated hollow petiole up to 3 meters high.

For the first time, the giant of the plant world blooms 7–10 years after sowing. And the green part of the plant is shown above the ground only after the inflorescence wilts.

Then, at the base of the cob of amorphophallus, as in the photo, dense oval berries of orange or yellow color are formed. Flowering is extremely irregular. In some cases, inflorescences do not form for 5–8 years, but sometimes nature lovers can watch the development of one of the most unusual plants on the planet every year.

Amorphophallus konjac (Amorphophallus konjac)

Another type of amorphophallus is a native of Southeast Asia, China and the Korean Peninsula. Amorphophallus cognac or, as the local population calls it, cognac is smaller than its titanic counterpart, but is just as interesting for botanists and for everyone who is not indifferent to exotic flora.

In addition to the word "konjac", in China, the Philippines or Vietnam, in relation to this variety, you can hear the name "snake palm" or "devil's tongue". Superstitious fears among the indigenous people were caused by the shape of a large pointed inflorescence of a burgundy hue, so similar to the tongue of the devil that appeared from the underworld itself. In scientific circles, this type of perennial aroid plant also has a second name - amorphophallus rivera.

The structure of the plant differs little from the titanic amorphophallus, but the height of konniaku does not exceed two meters from the tuber to the tip of a single leaf or inflorescence.

The amorphophallus tuber, as in the photo, has an irregularly rounded appearance and can reach 30 cm in diameter. The image shows the places where children are formed, which in a few years will become full-fledged specimens.

Amorphophallus rivera emerges from the dormant period in early spring and blooms in April. The inflorescence of konniaku is held on an upright petiole, painted to match the spathe and cob, about a meter long. As it blooms, the smell of rotting flesh spreads around the amorphophallus, and sticky drops form on the cob. In this way, the plant attracts insects that carry pollen from male flowers to female flowers located here.

Despite the unpleasant smell inherent in the species, an exotic type of culture is grown as a decorative one not only in greenhouses, but also in ordinary apartments.

But at home, they value not the original beauty of inflorescences and dull green snake palms, but the possibility of using amorphophallus tuber for food. Brownish corms are used to make flour and gelling food additives that are not inferior in quality to agar-agar.

Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius)

Amorphallus konjac is not the only ornamental and food plant in the genus. In some provinces of China, in Vietnam and on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, amorphophallus peonyfolia, called elephant yam, grows.

With the general similarity of the tuber and leaf, the inflorescence and spathe are very different in appearance from konniaku and arum titanum. The purple or violet-greenish coverlet has a pronounced frill along the edge, and the upper part of the spadix held on a shortened petiole resembles the fruiting body of a strongly overgrown line.

The tuber of an adult amorphophallus peonyfolia can weigh up to 15 kg and reach 40 cm in diameter. At home, this species is cultivated as a food, medicinal and fodder plant. They eat flour obtained from tubers, and the corms themselves, which are fried and boiled like potatoes.

Like the lower part of the bedspread, the petiole of the leaf has a spotted color. The leaves of this species really resemble the foliage of a famous garden flower, but unlike it, they can grow from 50 to 300 cm in diameter.

Amorphophallus bulbifer (Amorphophallus bulbifer)

All amorphophalluses owe their smell to the preferences of the insects that pollinate them. They are usually flies and scavenger beetles, attracted by the miasma of rotting flesh. For the same reason, in most species, the veil, the protective inflorescence, has a rich burgundy or bloody hue.

However, all rules have exceptions. A voodoo lily that grows in the wild or amorphophallus bulbosa can be considered the most beautiful, even exquisite of all relatives. It has a white-yellow cob pointed upwards with a clear border between the location of female and male flowers and a coverlet pink on the inside. In shape and grace, as can be seen in the photo of amorphophallus, such an inflorescence is more reminiscent of calla lilies, and besides, it almost does not have an unpleasant smell so disappointing flower growers.

But the main feature of the species is not in this, but in the ability to form quite viable bulbs on the branching of the leaf veins. Falling to the ground, after a short period of rest, they germinate and give life to new plants along with the children formed on the corm.

Bulbous amorphophallus in the wild is still found in the forests of India and Myanmar. But the species received real recognition in Europe and the USA, where it is considered an excellent room culture.

The species has a fairly long dormant period, from September to February the tuber is in dry soil without watering, and in the spring after transplantation it gives an arrow, on which a white-pink large inflorescence opens.

As with other related species, after pollination on the cob, as in the photo of amorphophallus, oval berries can ripen. Depending on their ripeness, their color varies from green to deep carmine. Before the berries are fully ripe, the plant has time to give a leaf on a spotted hollow petiole.

Dwarf amorphophallus (Amorphophallus pygmaeus)

Of clear interest to lovers of indoor cultures is the dwarf or pygmy amorphophallus, originally from Thailand. A plant no more than half a meter high stands out from a number of relatives with completely white elongated inflorescences with a small, also white bract.

This species emits a characteristic smell for amorphophallus only on the first night after the appearance of the cob and from spring to autumn pleases the owners first with the appearance of inflorescences, then with berries formed on the cob, and then with dense green or almost black pinnate leaves.

Video about the flowering of Amorphophallus in the apartment