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On April 17, the first-ever Titan Arum bloomed at the UWM Biological Sciences Greenhouse. The Titan Arum, or “Corpse Flower,” is recorded to have the largest, and one of the smelliest, inflorescences of the plant world. Convention dictates that an individual Titan Arum plant is named upon its very first bloom. The Biological Sciences Department affectionately named theirs ‘Hoot’, in honor of Dr. Sara Hoot. Currently, UWM’s Biological Sciences instructional collection maintains nine individual Amorphophallus titanum plants.
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2 • IN FOCUS • May, 2021
Life Cycle of the Titan Arum The Corpse Flower, or Titan Arum, is native to the rainforests of Sumatra in Indonesia. They are uncommon in the wild and are under considerable population pressure as their native habitats are rapidly being destroyed, primarily due to illegal logging and land conversion for agricultural use. As of 2020, A. titanum is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A. titanum grows from a corm, which in older specimens have been documented weighing up to 198 pounds. From the corm, a single umbrella-like leaf composed of a trunklike petiole topped with an array of leaflets will emerge, photosynthesizing and storing food for 9-12 months (in our greenhouse).
