The countdown is launched since the beginning of flowering Tuesday at midday: the plant in all its glory is revealed only for about 48 hours. And for the occasion the botanical garden has put the small dishes in the big ones: it has remained open to the public until more than midnight Tuesday evening, so that a maximum of visitors can observe this yellow pistil nearly two meters high, surrounded by a purple corolla.

"The plant is extremely rare, it has an absolutely crazy biology," enthuses Frédéric Pautz, director of the botanical garden. "Its tuber weighs 33 kilos and it has come out, in a month and a half, an inflorescence that is 1.97 meters high. This is the largest inflorescence ever had in France on this species."

And if this plant is rare, its flowering is even more so: it passes several years between each cycle.

Also nicknamed "the Penis of Titan", this plant is endemic to the tropical forests of Sumatra. The last opportunities for the public to discover such a flowering in France date back to 2009 in Brest, 2014 in Nantes, 2016 in Bordeaux, and last April at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.

"World Heritage"

"This plant, +Amorphophallus titanum+, is an endangered plant. It is very emblematic of the ecological problems of the island of Sumatra, since, as you know, in Sumatra, there is deforestation. That's why it has a protected status. It is truly a world heritage, it is a biological wealth for humanity," says Pautz.

The Lorraine Botanical Garden received this Arum in the form of seedlings in 2018, from the Meise Botanical Garden in Belgium. And after five years in which the gardeners-botanists of Nancy were very caring, after several growth cycles and two repotting, the small seedling has now turned into a tuber weighing more than 30 kilos.

Arum titan, a rare plant, exceptionally in bloom at the botanical garden of Villers-les-Nancy, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, July 11, 2023 © Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP

The show is as much visual as olfactory: the other nickname of the plant is the "Corpse Flower", because of the smell of rotten meat that emerges. In the natural environment it attracts pollinating insects, mainly a scavenger beetle. But the scents remain moderate at the botanical garden of Nancy and do not discourage amateurs.

"It's surreal"

"There is an extraordinary craze, we are already at more than 6,000 visitors last night: people at midnight, at one o'clock in the morning continued to arrive to see the plant," notes the director of the botanical garden. "It's extraordinary to imagine that a plant, of course exceptional, is able to arouse so much emotion. There is a return of visitors that is incredible in front of this absolutely magical plant."

The queue at the entrance of the botanical garden is impressive and so that everyone can see Arum Titan, visitors are advised not to stay more than two or three minutes in front of the flower.

Employees of the botanical garden of Villers-les-Nancy, measure the Arum Titan, a rare plant exceptionally in flower, on July 11, 2023 in Meurthe-et-Moselle © Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP

"I came last week, she looked like a cocoon, you could have thought an alien, that there was something in it," said Nathalie Decker, a 59-year-old laboratory assistant. "And there it hatched, it's surreal, it's huge, it's big, I didn't think a flower could be so big. It's magical."

A number of visitors have come every day to see the evolution of the plant for a week, to be sure not to miss anything.

"It's impressive, it's still worth the trip," agrees Pascale Délécray, a 73-year-old retiree.

© 2023 AFP