Amorphophallus titanum 'Konjac' came into flower last night. Twins!

The stench was pretty bad last night but not so bad this morning. And then as it warmed it got worse & worse, at one point the yard wreaked of stinky sneakers and now we're back to the "400 rotting dead rats" stage. The area is swarming with flies and there is an assortment of bugs assaulting the stamens within.

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

I've found that A konjacs are pretty vigorous, and efficient in terms of gaining energy in comparison to the tropical titanums. I'm getting a massive leaf with tons of leaflets off only a 5-6 inch tall stem while the titanums have much larger stems in comparison however they only make 5 leaflets at their current size.

It would be interesting if someone could create a hybrid between these species to have the durability and toughness of konjac while still having the size potential of titanum.

Here is some side by side comparison with the konjac in the middle.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

Seems that according to the U. of Conn. the species name is now A. konjac and not a selection of titanum. A number of species to my surprise.

http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/198500882.html

Don't see why you couldn't cross it with other species unless there's a chromosome mis-match.

The big one just flowered at Kew and RBGE.

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

Based on what I've seen, the A Konjac does not lose much energy through the flowering cycle. Mine flowered back in the spring, and once the flower died back, a small petiole appeared in its place however I soon realized that there was still a lot more stored energy inside of the corm to be released when 2 much larger leaves appeared in another 6 weeks. This means that the plant simply hasn't come out of it's dormancy yet, and this year, its overall foliar mass far exceeds that of last year with it's 3 petioles combined. It's new petioles still look like they are only about 60% done growing which makes it even more exciting.

Here are some pictures.






Even the little tuber coming off of the big one happens to be producing a larger petiole which should far exceed the size of the first one once it is fully grown.



I've already sold over half my a titanums, but I've seen that their rate of growth doesn't quite compete with a konjac. They just have a greater size potential.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

Still no new growth on the 2 big corms that flowered here in early July. Seems the new leaves were really late appearing last year too.

By the way here is a pic of Agapanthus 'Summer Skies' that I planted at a neighbour's. I was sure it would get hammered by last winter. It was late appearing but is going to flower. Seems like this one and possibly A. campanulatus from the Drakensburg are the hardiest of all.

john

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

It must be fun being one of your neighbours John.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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TC
http://gardenitis.blogspot.com/

Maybe so until they want to find a place to put a lawn chair on their patio. ; )

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

Wow John that's a beauty specimen Flower that your growing. The stink is definitely worth it because wow that's a cool looking plant.

Thanks for sharing !!!