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by mallomarmeasle 1461 days ago
Great Latin name: Amorphophallus titanium: "giant misshapen phallus"

Perhaps I do not have the details correct, but I was told this story: Kew Gardens had one of these flower in their greenhouse many years ago, when they were very unusual in "captivity". Another botanical garden (perhaps the one in St. Louis) subsequently was able to get one to flower, and the bloom was quite a bit larger. They printed up T-shirts that said "My Amorphophallus is bigger than yours"
2 comments
rob74 1461 days ago
Apparently the Germans (from Bonn) can boast about the largest Amorphophallus: 3 meters high in 2003 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphophallus_titanum#Descrip...).

I wonder if some botanical gardens also think about getting some carrion-eating flies and beetles (which are normally attracted to the flower and pollinate it) to make the experience more complete?

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m34 1461 days ago
TIL! Initially I thought about the sprouting corpses in Grim Fandango, but I'll make it a stop for my next visit to the botanical garden in munich: https://www.botmuc.de/en/garden/gh_victoria_house.html

There at least the giant lily needs to be pollinated by hand as they are lacking the specialized beetles https://www.botmuc.de/en/audio_tour/202.html so I'd assume some gardens do think about these matters.

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dekhn 1461 days ago
The one in SF is currently flaccid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FANXYhhWj6E
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