Titan Arum - a real Giant (text version)

The mighty Titan Arum

Deep under the rainforest canopy, on the shady forest floor sits one of the weirdest plants in the world. A giant that smells truly horrible, with just one leaf,  that is as big as a tree.

This giant plant has a giant name too - scientists use a Latin name - Amorphophallus titanum. Sometimes it is also called the corpse flower - because it smells like a dead animal.

Today, we'll call it by its other common name - the Titan Arum. Join us as we adventure round the globe and deep into its rainforest home to learn all about this incredible living thing.

A true giant

Titan Arums are huge - they have one of the biggest flowerheads of any plant. The Titans were giants in Greek myths.

 The Titan Arum is just one of about 5000 different plants in the Arum family. Some are giants, and some are the tiniest plants we know. Find out more about the Arum family here and in the next part.

Can you imagine walking through the jungle and bumping into the enormous flowerhead of a Titan Arum - what would you think?

Would it be like you had entered another world full of mythical creatures?

The tiny little plant called duckweed is a relative of the Titan Arum.

It floats on ponds and is the size of a Lego minifigure's hand when it is fully grown!

The Titan Arum is about 150 million times larger than duckweed.

Imagine - that's like one of your relatives being the size of 10 skyscrapers!

Meet the Arum family from around the world

Lords and Ladies

This is a common Arum - you can find in Britain. It has lots of different names:

Lords and ladies

Cuckoo-pint

Jack in the Pulpit

Wakerobin

It lives in shady woods. It has shiny leaves shaped like an arrowhead. These sometimes have black spots.

In late summer it makes berries that change from green to orange to red, just like traffic lights.

The berries are poisonous to humans.

What would you call this plant, and why ?

Dragon Arum

This plant lives near the Mediterranean sea - on the Island of Crete.

It looks like a dragon with a black head and mouth and a long tongue.

The leaves look like claws or wings.

Just like the Titan Arum, it smells very strongly. The smell attracts insects that normally eat dead animals or even poo. These insects pollinate the Dragon Arums.

This means that the insects take the pollen from one plant to another, which helps the plant to make seeds.

Arisaema

This strange plant that looks a bit like a snake, comes from Japan. Many kinds of Arisaema are from Japan and other parts of East Asia.

Also in Japan is a plant called Konjak.

Konjak is very closely related to the Titan Arum. It makes a gloopy chemical that is used in cooking in Japan.

This food is  called Konyaku.

Skunk Cabbage

This is Skunk Cabbage. It is called this because it smells strongly, like a skunk. Many Arums, including Titan Arum also have a strong smell.

This kind of Skunk Cabbage comes from North America and lives in marshes and swamps. People grow it in British gardens for its shiny leaves and yellow flower heads.

However, it has escaped from gardens and is starting to invade ponds and marshes in Britain.

Cheeseplant

This is a kind of cheeseplant from the rainforest of South America.

It lives in the shade under the forest canopy. Some of them live on the forest floor, and some of them climb up other plants.

The cheeseplant has enormous dark leaves  to catch sunlight. It also has a tough, waxy surface called a cuticle. This lets water run off the leaf, and helps stop the plant catching diseases.

Cheeseplants are called that because they have holes in the leaves like Swiss cheese.

The scientific Latin name for some cheeseplants is Monstera !

Titan Arum

The huge tropical island of Sumatra is part of Indonesia, and has beautiful tropical rainforests.

This is where the Titan Arum lives.

Like many parts of the Tropics a lot of land is being cleared on Sumatra for farming palm oil.

This is a big threat for Titan Arum and all the animals and plants that live in its forest.

The life of a Titan Arum

Under the ground

A leaf like a tree

The flower head emerges

The flower head grows

The bud grows very fast - the corm under the ground gives the flower head lots of energy to grow.

The flower head opens

The flower head begins to open.

It often opens overnight.

Full flowering

The flower head is fully open.

It will stay open like this for one or two days.

The flowers are ready

Deep inside te flower head's protective spathe, the flowers are ready.

A smelly attraction

The spadix - the pointy bit at the tip of the flower head heats up and gives off a strong, rotten smell.

This attracts flies to visit the flower head and pick up pollen. They can carry the pollen to another Titan Arum. This is called pollination.

This means the genes of one plant can mix with the genes of another and helps to make the next generation of plants.

The spadix collapses

After a few days of being open, the spadix falls over. Flowering is inished, but the most important bit is still to come. . .

The fruits

... this is the fruits developing.

Inside each of these fruits is a seed.

Birds will eat these bright red fruits then fly away. The seeds will fall out in the bird's droppings and grow into a new plant.

The seeds will begin to grow and form new leaves and a new corm, starting the cycle all over again.

Summary

The Titan Arum has an interesting lifecycle - a little bit like a daffodil or snowdrop bulb in cooler climates - it has an important store of food under the ground.

This is fed every year by the leaf until the plant has enough energy to flower.

When the huge flower head appears, it only lasts for a few days.

After this, if it has been pollinated, the flower head makes lots of red fruits.

The seeds inside these can make brand new plants.

Titan Arums are very mysterious plants and are quite rare and threatened in the wild. To help Titan Arums survive in the future, it is important for scientists to study them.

Where in the forest do Titan Arums live?

The rainforest has four different layers. A huge number of different plants and animals live there - the Titan Arum is just one of these. The amazing variety of all these living things is called biodiversity. Rainforests are very biodiverse.

The plants and animals that live there have many adaptations to live in the rainforest.

Rainforest riddle

Each clue has a letter from a riddle. Write each letter down and see if you can work out the most precious thing in the rainforest. The Titan Arum gives you the start and end of the word.

Emergent layer

These are the tallest trees in the forest. They are the top layer of the four rainforest layers.

Light is very important for plants to survive, so plants are always battling to get light.

The emergent trees grow above the canopy, so they can catch as much light as possible.

YOUR CLUE = O

Canopy layer

This is the canopy layer.

Most of the trees form the canopy layer.

Many creatures live in the canopy layer, like the phasmid in this film. 

It is a kind of stick insect that looks like a thick branch or old, dried leaf.

YOUR CLUE = D

Understorey

Various kinds of shrubs and trees live in this third layer - the understorey.

Most of them have very dark leaves to catch every tiny bit of light that reaches this far down.

It is so dark that many animals use their sense of smell to find their way around.

This shrub is from the rainforest understorey of  Central America. It has a strange green flower that smells like strong cheese or old socks !

YOUR CLUE = I

Forest Floor

Many small plants with soft stems live here, the lowest layer of the rainforest. They do not usually have woody stems.

We call these herbs - but you can't eat them like herbs you find in the kitchen.

Their leaves are very dark green, or even purple to catch every little bit of light that reaches this shady place.

Some leaves have spots that might give them a kind of camouflage from animals that want to eat the plant.

YOUR CLUE = V

Epiphytes

Many small plants grow on the trunks of the trees.

They are called epiphytes ["eppy -fites"].

This is a Greek word that means 'plant that grows on other plants'.

Many orchids, ferns and many other plants live like this.

It means they can reach the sunlight closer to the canopy.

YOUR CLUE = E

Climbers

To reach the sunlight, some plants 'cheat'. They climb up the trunks of the big trees.

These kinds of plants are called climbers. If they have a woody stem, we call them lianas ['lee-annas'].

This means they can get up to the precious sunlight above without needing to make a huge trunk.

Many arum plants are good climbers.

Strangler figs are another kind of climber that wraps completely around a tree, and eventually kills the tree.

YOUR CLUE = R

Megaherbs

Some plants, like bananas have huge leaves to catch as much sunlight as possible. These kind of plants grow very fast in forest clearings, where there is a bit more light.

We call them megaherbs because they are gigantic, and look like a tree, but they have no wood.

YOUR CLUE = S

Fallen Log

When a tree falls over in the rainforest, it creates a gap in the canopy.

This lets lots of light in and allows many fast-growing plants to grow in the space.

This log will be shelter and food for many insects and other animals.

The forest is always changing, with new plants growing and old ones dying and falling over.

YOUR CLUE = I

Titan Arum

The Titan Arum lives on the forest floor - usually in clearings where the canopy is not so dense.

Its huge leaf is part of the understorey.

Take the eight letters you have already found and fit them into these letters below to find the most precious thing in the rainforest.

BI_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ TY

Congratulations!

You have investigated  an amazing and precious plant from a fascinating habitat - the rainforest.

The most precious thing in the rainforest is the same as the most precious thing in all the living world: 

BIODIVERSITY.  This was the answer to the riddle - did you work it out?

Whether you got it right or not,  well done - you have learned lots about the Titan Arum.

It is important for us to look after every habitat and all the biodiversity in them. If we do not, some incredible plants and animals could become extinct.

And remember, even the habitats close to home are very important too.