Video: Another giant penis plant blooming in Leiden; Third in three years

For the third year in a row, the Hortus botanicus Leiden has a giant penis plant in bloom. This time, they have two Amorphophallus gigas making flowers at the same time. It is the first time one of these penis plants is blooming in the Netherlands, and as far as the Leiden botanical center knows, only the third time in Europe.

Greenhouse manager Rogier van Vugt is delighted that they again have a new species of giant penis plant in bloom. “He’s almost 3.5 meters tall,” Van Vugt said to Editie NL. “And what a one it is. It looks like an object from a science fiction film from the sixties. Many people think it looks fake. It looks like it’s made of some kind of glossy plastic.”

In terms of appearance, the gigas is somewhere between the decus-silvae, which bloomed in Leiden in 2021, and the titanum, which bloomed there last year.

The gigas is a pretty rare species of Amorphophallus. “It is the first time that it blooms in the Netherlands,” Van Vugt said. “As far as we know, it has succeeded twice before. That was in Germany, and they were a lot smaller.”