Rare Sumatran Titan arum in bloom at GUM & Botanical Garden
UPDATE: Sumatra opened on Sunday 28 June and is now officially in bloom, reaching a height of 2.29 metres. To celebrate this special occasion, GUM will offer free admission on Tuesday 30 June.
The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum), named Sumatra, is now in bloom in the Tropical Greenhouse at GUM & Botanical Garden. We are delighted to share this extraordinary event with the public.
Visit Sumatra
Sumatra is in bloom in the Tropical Greenhouse.
Free admission to the Botanical Garden
The Tropical Greenhouse is open daily until 7:30 pm (doors close at 8 pm), as long as Sumatra remains in bloom.
Free museum admission
Exceptionally on Tuesday 30 June, GUM offers free admission and will remain open until 6 pm. It's the perfect opportunity to combine your visit to Sumatra with the exhibition BORDERS.
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Don't want to miss a moment of Sumatra's bloom? Watch it live via the livestream below.
Marjan Doom
Director GUM & Botanical Garden
It is difficult to predict when ‘Sumatra’ will bloom. We suspect it will be around the weekend or early next week. The flower is already 125 cm tall and will continue to grow. Warm weather is forecast for the coming days, which will speed up its growth. The flowering period lasts just 72 hours, or two evenings. Short but sweet.
”The smell of the ‘penis plant’
It is no coincidence that the Arum Titan is nicknamed the ‘penis plant’ as well as the ‘corpse plant’: when in bloom, the flower gives off a pungent smell of rotting flesh to attract carrion flies. This is how the flower is pollinated. The plant smells unpleasant, but is a sight to behold. On the first evening, the female parts of the plant bloom; on the second evening, the male parts.
Herbert Evert
Gardner GUM & Botanical Garden
Over the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to see one of these Arum Titan in bloom on several occasions. It was always a major crowd-puller. An Arum Titan lily flowers for the first time after about 10 years. After that, the plant flowers a little more regularly, every three years.
”Sumatra, the last of the original Arum Titan lilies
When GUM & Botanical Garden received the corms of the Arum Titan lilies in 2005, it was a matter of waiting to see when they would flower for the first time.
Ten years later, the first one took the lead and was aptly named Aaron, followed by Titaantje in 2016 and Anne in 2017. Anne was then pollinated with pollen from Bonn in Germany, resulting in several offspring.
Of our original nine specimens, five have died, but three were also donated to other botanical gardens, such as the one in Meise.
Herbert Evrard: “Sumatra is the last giant arum we still have from that original shipment in 2005, and it was also the last to flower for the first time. In 2023, it came into flower, and it wasn’t alone: together with ‘Titaantje’ and ‘Anne’, the record was broken with three flowering Arum Titan lilies in our greenhouses. Sumatra grew to a height of no less than two metres, but Anne was a further fifty centimetres taller.”
Whether Sumatra will grow to such a size again this year remains to be seen, as gardener Herbert Evrard believes that this year a rather small ‘penis plant’ will flower. Herbert is quick to add, however, that this does not mean the bloom will be any less beautiful, and that size has no bearing on the scent or the duration of the bloom.
So you can see (and smell) that size isn’t everything when it comes to the Amorphophallus titanum.
