The world's largest flower blooms at the Takeda Garden, Kyoto, for the first time in five years

Flower height 145 cm

July 2, 2022 was an exciting day for our team of dedicated gardeners at the Takeda Garden for Medicinal Plant Conservation, Kyoto, when the titan arum that has been cultivated at the garden since 1993, bloomed for the first time in five years. The garden was open to the public for four days and about 600 people visited.

Titan arum is endemic to the rainforests of western Sumatra and is said to flower only once every seven years in its native habitat. Most years, a large leaf grows from the bulb in the soil, and when the leaf falls, the plant goes back into dormancy. Very rarely, however, it produces a flower bud instead of a leaf. It is said that a flower bud appears when the bulb is fully grown, but the reason is still largely unknown. Just a small number of individual plants are cultivated and observed around the world, so there is still a lot to be understood about how titan arum blooms. What we know for sure is that careful handling and high technical skills are required. And there is no shortage of these qualities at the Takeda Garden for Medicinal Plant Conservation.