Botanic Gardens of Sydney’s Post

Late last Thursday night horticulturalist Alyse cut a precise square into Putricia and inserted a soft paintbrush covered in pollen to dust the female flowers. 24 hours later, the team went back in with a spoon to carefully scrape pollen off the male flowers. That pollen is currently undergoing tests in the lab, while back in the nursery we're waiting to see if the female flowers will begin to swell into what could total 400 plump red fruits. This global conservation work can help protect Amorphophallus titanum in their native habitat by strengthening the genetic pedigree of the wild plants - much like the work done with endangered animal populations.