Hi Rick, looks like good sources for titanum are hard to come by. I thought the seed you bought had sprouted. Recently, my friends obtained a 1.5 inch 'titanum' tuber from an Indonesian source who supposedly had access to seeds/ seedlings. He had wanted to charge us $40/- USD for the tuber but settled for a trade instead(my friends parted with about 20 orchid species, mature plants that were painstakingly grown from flask. When the tuber sprouted we were in for a shock - it was not a titanum but the brown variant of the more common A variabilis. We felt so cheated... and of course, that source is still out there, waiting for the next victim who's gonna pay him $40/-USD for the tubers :(

These seed are trivial to germinate (like all species of Amorph I have germinated) if they are supplied fresh. The problem is if the goof you bought them from had them out of the berry and dry while trying to sell them they are toast before you ever get them. I know a friend in Brazil who bought some off ebay recently and his did not germinate either. You really need to know who you are buying from. I got 13 seed 2.5 years ago now and I had 100% germination (in fact a few developed growth points at both end of the massive seed which is not uncommon) and now have 15 healthy titanum growing just in front of a window in my house...they have never been outside in their lives. The problem with wild collected tubers of this species as I understand it is they are typically riddled with nematodes and so you are doomed with these. Sorry to hear you got ripped off....the best way to go is still seed, but you have to know that they were just harvested and ideally they were only removed from the berry just before being shipped to you or at worst from Indonesia to the seller and then they were stored in damp paper towel before being shipped to you. You can buy a nice seedling titanum from PDN for $50......seems like the way to go to me unless you can find a reputable source. best of luck :o) Dan

Well looks like the best way out for me now is to convince my friend to sell me one of the offsets from his titanum tuber... 50USD is alot to ask for a critter like that... well maybe I'm a miser, but I could purchase 3-4 species with that amount of money ;)

What's PDN anyway ? Is it Reliable ?

If it is an offset then it is not titanum....this species does not produce offsets....be very careful of what you are getting!!

PDN is Plant Delights Nursery and they charge $40-50 for a seedling plant. Honestly, $50 for a decent 5 cm tuber of titanum is not that bad...I know it is a lot of money, but it is as cheap as you are going to get it for....just be very careful of your source :o) Dan

hi there, she meant that the titanum had multiple growth tips, which would result in a few plants originating from one parent plant.

Thanks Blue bonsai for the tip, I'll check it out for sure :)

Anyway, on the issue of offsets, not in the strict sense of the word maybe, but if we are talking about multiple growth tips that break off eventually and are established as viable plants - I think perhaps we could consider these as offsets, very much like how a cactus would produce offsets. I guess they arent that different considering both would find their origins from meristematic activity around the 'stem' (or 'underground stem' for amorphos) region. The interesting thing now is to find out if this occurence of having multiple growth points is restricted to certain clones, or if it could be artificially induced - like how we induce keiki formation on orchid infloresence? Well I suppose the titanum dealers are waiting to pounce on me for saying this, cos if this pulls through we're going to see the titanum prices plummet ! (but what a bonus for us !!)LOL

i have read it is possible to prop up titanum from leaf cuttings i dont want to br the first to try though as mine is only small still

Well, the seeds didn't work out, but I found the following domestic supplier, and they have 5cm corms available for $43 each, including shipping in the continental US. (centralfloridafarms.com) The a. paieonifolius seed that I got on eBay made up for the other failed seed. Nice to have the foliage during the winter months, and they grow VERY fast!

I have heard that amorphos will start from leaf cuttings, and I will experiment on my plentiful sauromatums this summer.

Happy holidays everyone!

Yes, titanum has been propagated for years from leaf cuttings and this has been discussed previously on the aroid-l. The ones that supposedly work best for this are the ones with bulbils in the leaf axis, like bublifer or muellerii. Glad to see you found a source for titanum that will ship for a reasonable price. Please let me know if they are ligit as I have a friend in Brazil that is dyeing to get this species and I have not caved and sent him one of mine yet. The problem with shipping to Brazil is that it takes approx. 3 weeks for the tubers to show up and titanum does not want to be dry so that is a tough one to ship.

Happy Holidays :o) Dan

How do you go about taking leaf cuttings from an amorpho ? Do you 'divide' the single leaf into 'leaflets' and place them on the soil ? I have a couple of mulleris and bulbifers with mutliple growth tips, so I will want to try this out..

Anyway.. paeonifolius is a monster weed in our climate.. my friend started with a small plant which she grew for food (they cook the tubers in curry), and ended up having half a garden filled with paeonifolius plantlets in just over 6 months. From what i heard she's still trying to rid her garden of it :0

Take a leaflet and cut it clean so that you have the main vein of the leaf that can be put in the soil....keep it damp and humid and in time it will develop a new tuber that will then put up a new petiole and off you go....most people would not really bother with things like bulbifer because they are so common, but it is a good one to try at first since they work very well with this technique. best of luck with it :o) Dan

You might want to try Natural Selections Exotics in Fort Lauderdale. Enid had a few small A. titanums for sale.

Here is a link that might be useful: Natural Selections Exotics

Thanks very much Dan :) I'm going to try this on some of the unknown spp and the seedlings... hope I will be able to share the good news with everyone soon :)

Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, NC occasionally has Amorphophallus titanum plants for sale. They sell young plants in a 4" pot. Good luck with it. I have included a direct link to the plant on their website in case you still want to buy one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Plant Delights Amorphophallus titanum for sale