United Kingdom: Giant Titan Arum Flower Blooms

Record ID: 3852

  • Title: United Kingdom: Giant Titan Arum Flower Blooms
  • Date: 31st July 1996
  • Summary: Hundreds of plant lovers packed into Kew Gardens in London on July 31 to catch a glimpse of the titan arum in bloom. The crowds were not put off by the fact that the massive yellow and purple flower was meant to give off a stench described as a mixture of rotting fish and dead mouse. The putrid smell is supposed to be crucial to the survival of the plant because it tells pollinating bees that it is in bloom. Its flowering outside Sumatra is rare - one last did so at Kew 33 years ago. Titan arums, whose full botanical name is Amorphophallus Titanum, bloom only once every six or seven years in the jungles of their native Sumatra, where they are known as corpse flowers.
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  • Location: UK LONDON KEW GARDENS
  • Reuters ID: LDL00124R2HKV
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
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  • Copyright Holder: Reuters Archive
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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