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Residents startled as stinky flowers bloom
Pretty in purple: An elephant foot yam blooms in the front yard of a house in Pancoran Mas, Depok, West Java
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retty in purple: An elephant foot yam blooms in the front yard of a house in Pancoran Mas, Depok, West Java. It is the first time that the flower, which gives off a pungent smell, has appeared in the area.(JP/Sausan Atika Maesara)
It was just before sunset last week when Dyah Ayu found the source of a rotting smell similar to a rat carcass that had been spreading around her residence since the night before.
What she found growing in her neighbor’s yard startled her. It was a burgundy-colored flower that was unleashing the foul odor, as Dyah, along with some residents living on Jl Beo in Ciputat, South Tangerang, Banten, discovered when thoroughly inspecting a next-door garden located just a few meters from her house.
The flower, which was about 45 centimeters in diameter and 30 cm in height, has a small cylindrical blossom subtended by a large bract.
“We felt dizzy by the rotten pungent smell, so we inspected the garden owned by my neighbor. Apparently, the stink came from that corpse flower,” Dyah told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Despite residents claiming it was a corpse flower, it actually was not, said Yuzammi, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) who specializes in Araceae — a family of monocotyledonous plants.
The flower found in Dyah’s residential area was not the prominent and rare Amorphophallus titanum that actually owns that name, but the Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, known as the elephant foot yam, instead.
The 27-year-old woman said it was the first time she had found that flower growing in the area. “Many people came to see it since then,” Dyah said, adding that the stink had gone away after four days when the flower withered.
“Neighbors say this is a rare flower that is seldom grown in here.”
Kilometers away from Dyah’s residence, the same species was reportedly blooming on Jl H. Amsir in Pancoran Mas, Depok, West Java.
When the Post visited the spot on Tuesday, the flower — which was about 30 cm in diameter and 20 cm tall and was located under a mango tree — had bloomed for three days without unleashing a significantly foul odor, the house owner said.
Zaeni, 45, who has been living at his current residence for more than 18 years, said that was the first time he had seen such a flower with his own eyes.
“I’ve seen it only on television,” he said.
Zaeni said that when the flower was still budding, he had no idea about what type of plant it was.
After seven days passed he learned about the flower when his wife told him that it could be a rare species.
“When it blooms, my wife shared the picture of the flower with her WhatsApp group. Her friends told her that it was a rare flower,” he said. “Just like corpse flower or Rafflessia [arnoldii].”
“As far as I know, it never grows in this area,” he concluded.
At the beginning of the rainy season, blooming elephant foot yams, locally known as a suweg, have emerged in several places in Greater Jakarta.
In contrast with Dyah and Zaeni, who were surprised about the flower’s emergence in their housing area, a resident of Cilenggang, South Tangerang, said he had found the flower growing every year near the Cisadane River in Cilenggang, as reported by wartakota.tribunnews.com.
Yuzammi said that its spread into residential areas was likely caused by flying animals, such as birds or bats that ate the flower’s seeds and unintentionally dropped them into soil when they passed by. The ones blooming by homes were of the Amorphophallus species that can adapt to various types of habitat.
“Its emergence is very common in Indonesia and the time required from planting until blooming can be up to three years,” she added.
Yuzammi explained it was misinformation to say that the elephant foot yam was not a rare species and largely different from the Rafflesia arnoldii or the tall and stinky Amorphophallus titanium.
“It’s in the same family [Aracea] with the corpse flower. However, the corpse flower is listed as threatened flora, but it [the elephant foot yam] is not,” she said, saying that the species was not included in the protected flora and fauna list in the 2018 Environment and Forestry Ministry regulations.
“Meanwhile, the Rafflesia arnoldii is not a corpse lily. Our country says it is one of the puspa langka (rare flowers),” she said. (sau)
