The Story of Kew Gardens by Lynn Parker

Author:Lynn Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcturus Digital Limited

The Titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum, is known as the corpse flower in its native Indonesia because of the rancid smell, described in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine as ‘a mixture of rotten fish and burnt sugar’, which it emits as it flowers. It caused a sensation when it first bloomed at Kew in June 1889; the odour attracted ‘many blue-bottle flies’, and visitors were greatly disturbed by the smell. The artist Matilda Smith, who recorded this first flowering for the Botanical Magazine, endured many hours painting it and consequently felt ill. The flower, or more correctly inflorescence, can grow to more than 2.5m (8¼ft) and is surrounded by a single purple leaf. These photographs were taken over a four-day period during a later blooming in 1901.

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