What is this

I don't have any idea what this is, I believe it was a bulb and I stuck it in dirt and it grew....

The stalk is pale beige pink with green blotches.

Thank you for any help.

My guess is it's a - Amorphophallus Konjac ( Voodoo Lily ) this is in its tree phase. It usually blooms first then produces the tree second. When it blooms YOU and every one else will know it ,S T I N K !! YES I SAID S T I N K !!!!!!!!!!!!

This the flower

In its tree stage. I hope this helps. Jerry

This message was edited Jul 7, 2009 10:57 PM

it's beautiful... love the markings on the trunk...
Brittany

I would like one of these! Does anyone have a bulb to trade?

they usually make bulbs right before they go dormant
It can take several years to get a flower as large as the one in the photo

Thank you so much. I think the tree part looks like skin, it kind of freaks me out and at the same time I really like it. I have it in a very small pot and had no idea how big it would get, what to do with it. Kind of fun watching something you had no idea what was going to happen. I have not had a bloom, I received it in a swap or trade and lost the tag.

Thank you everyone.

It looks like Amorphophallus paeoniifolius to me, I've grown a lot of them. Never had Amorphophallus konjac so don't know what the difference is between them. What you have there is a single leaf, the bulb only produces one leaf at a time and that leaf is divided into many leaflets. If grown properly the leaf (and bulb) increase in size each year. Mine have got to a bit over 2 metres high and the bulb over 30 cms in diameter.

It's konjac. Paeoniifolius has green and cream blotches.

edited to say:

You can find out lots more about this type of plant on the Aroid forum, or at the International Aroid Society website, www.aroid.org

This message was edited Jul 8, 2009 9:18 AM

I started growing these this spring! I have 2 golf ball sized tubers and 2 4+ pounders that are 7 inches across. I love these! Here is a golf ball sized tuber plant:

Forgot to add that mine are Konjacs.

Nice, Tommy! It will grow even better outside for the summer...

I have several of these. I have traded several, and you can see it bloom on my have list. It's a cobra lily some call voo-doo lily, some call it devil's tongue. There are several names for it. Does stink to high heaven when it blooms, you will think something is dead. I stake the stalk when it's small so the wind doesn't snap it into. One more photo to follow.

Here is another of a new baby.

Mekos, mine is in such a small pot and is so tall, I have left it in the garden room. Afraid to do anything with it, afraid I will do something to it. It is such a wild looking plant!

It really needs a bigger pot, heavy on the bottom if you can.Get the bigger pot filled 1/3 of the way full with soil, then, Get someone to help hold your top of plant while you take it out of the pot it is in, and just sit it in the new pot and cover it to 3/4 full. Then stake it with a tall stake. You aren't going to want it INSIDE the house when it blooms. You will think something crawled in there somewhere and died. Mine is outside under the canopy I made over my pond. It needs bright light not hot sun. The direct sun will blister the leaves and turn them yellow. I have one hip tall and it made a baby one right at the stem. Every year the bulb will get bigger and bigger. The bulb will make babies too.

Funnily enough when I first got my paeoniifolius I prepared myself for the stench but it never happened. Regularly get flowers but have never had any smell from them. Never had any seed from them either, but with the amount of bulblets they produce that's not a problem. Might be something to do with their growing conditions/soil, etc.

I don't know, there are several different kinds of cobra plants but mine stinks to high heaven and you'll think there is a dead animal somewhere around when it blooms. UNBELIVABLE stintch. You are so lucky. What do you pot yours with? My Aunt keeps hers in the yard and they reproduce all the time. I might leave one out this winter, but going to take a few inside the greenhouse this winter to be sure we have one left next year in case that one doesn't make it.

I started one in 2006, planted it outdoor, and since then I've many more offsprings that I potted up in various containers. Mine are the Konjac I think, they don't make bulbils on the leaf axils, but bulblets underground. They're hardy here, but I keep them in container just to be certain voles and other critters don't eat them up.

It isn't in my house, it is in my garden room, which might not be better if it smells that bad....LOL
We are on a hill top and it is so windy, I will need to find a protected area tell it gets strudy.
Thank you for telling me how to transplant it because I had no idea.

I have about a dozen; three different types. I know that a number of them are bulbifur, there's one with dark green leaves with red edging and one other type. I've never noticed the bad odor. I thought it was just the titanum that had the deadly odor.

Amorphophallus bulbifer has a very pretty flower that does not have the stink as bad as the others. The smell is not pleasant but it is not as strong or long lasting as some of the others. I have a 5' square bed of Amorphophallus in the yard containing a few different species, including A titanum. Here is one of the bulbifer in flower..

My bulbifer certainly do stink. They smell like a dead animal.
I have heard there are two varieties of bulbifer- one smells and one does not. I don't know if that is true or not.

WOW, That is so pretty. Do they all bloom at once or one at a time? That would be awsome to see a bunch different ones blooming all at once. Sure is pretty.

Lakeside, do you have yours out side or do you have to keep in a greenhouse? I'm in zone 7 and wondering. My aunt has some outside, but I've just been afraid to put them out all winter in the yard. She lives 30-45 minutes from me and is where they would be better protected from the cold as far as location wise.

They bloom in spring, before the leaves come. They aren't consistent bloomers though, even when mature some springs they do not bloom.

Beautiful bloom, do they stink because they are pollinated by flies?

I am so far loving the plant, it is just so unique. Love that skin look on the trunk.

It isn't really a trunk, it is the petiole of the leaf. They are not at all woody, just a big fat stem. The splotches are very pretty though. On A. titanum they are fewer and silvery.

Yes, they are fly pollinated. Aftr pollination it takes up to a year before the seeds are ripe. The ripening stalk is very attractive as the seeds mature, turning from green to red. The plant does not form a leaf while the seeds are forming, there is just the ripening stalk that year.

Popper, what conditions do you keep your titanium in? Obviously outside, what do you do to the soil, and what about drainage? I've heard they're very touchy, susceptible to rots, nematodes, etc., etc.

The more I learn about this plant the more unique it is. Not a trunk but a leaf.....amazing.
Please tell more.

It is much easier than I thought it would be. I have it in a coarse soil that drains quickly. I have it under a tree so it gets dappled lightmost of the day. Late in the afternoon it gets full sun. When it goes dormant I stop watering it. We get little rain here when it is dormant and that is the only water it gets. When the leaf begins to emerge in the spring I begin watering again. I fertilize when growing to help increase the tuber size.

It can take considerably more cold than I though it would.

OK, will it go dormant on it's own? Will the leaf just die back? Glad you told me it goes dormant or I would just think it died. I still have it in the garden room directly in front of south window and a west window, it seems really happy right now.

Thanks for that info. I've got 'millions of questions' but don't want to hijack this thread. Perhaps best by Dmail.

Please ask your questions here. I am sure I have the same questions.

I plant mine in pots and put them outside once they're planted. Sometimes it's very late! I still have some tubers in a bag that haven't been planted- bad me!
We have free range chickens and they scratch in the garden and kill everything- if they don't scratch it up they eat it.
So, I put everything in pots and try to hide them from the chickens.

Generally (not always) it will go dormant in the fall/early winter. However, being that they come from a tropical climate they can go dormant at any time.

You will know when it is coming. The leaf edges will begin to curl & brown and eventually the stem will loose is turgor and fall over. It is a fairly slow process, it takes a couple weeks.

After that happens, you with hold watering? thenw what happens, does the bud appear all by itself, like the naked ladies?

My questions relate more specifically to A. titanum rather than to A. konjac. But maybe others might be interested.

I got an A. titanum bulb but haven't taken delivery yet. Very much don't want to do the wrong thing with it, having heard all sorts of stories about how touchy they are. I've only grown A, paeoniifolius and A. galbra because they're local natives and grow everywhere here in the wild.

The A titanum comes from a year round wet climate with constant high humidity. Here we have distinct wet and dry seasons. Humidity drops in the dry season. So I'll need to water it then but don't want to over do it. This amorph doesn't go dormant each year.

It's also supposed to be very susceptible to fungus and nematodes. Never had problems with nematodes but wondering whether it would be best in a pot where soil could be controlled more easily, ie sterilized or fungicides applied.

Okay, that's not a million questions. Not yet, anyway, but I'll probably think of a few more, especially when I've got the tuber in my hand.

If you have a poor soil I would leave it in a pot. They will rot if the soil is soggy. I have had no problems with fungus or nematodes and I do not baby it. A major no-no is uproot it or repot it when it is in active growth, always wait until it is dormant.

We have a distinctly dry season here with very low humidity. My titanum does go dormant at that time every year. I slow down on the water when there is no leaf. When the corm has stored enough energy (to either flower or replace the leaf) it will go dormant for a period of time (usually about 3-4 months) before the new leaf or flower appears. There is always a rest period between leaves, it will not have two things at a time.

Happ-do not water when it is dormant, that is when you will have issues with rot. The new leaf/flower will start to grow when the plant is ready, that is when you start watering again.