BOGOR BOTANICAL GARDEN

 BOGOR BOTANICAL GARDEN, WEST JAVA, INDONESIA

Located 300m above sea level and just an hour's train journey from South of Jakarta, BOGOR enjoys a cool, wet climate and is home to the famously lush Botanical Garden (Kebun Raya Bogor). The Botanical Garden open daily from 08.00am to 05.00pm; with an entrance fee about US $ 1.- plus 20cent dollar for entering the orchid house. You can go by train, bus or private car to Bogor and enjoy the beautiful scenery on the way. Some rest areas offer you not only local and Indonesian cuisines but also western one. You don’t have to worry about hotels or restaurants in Bogor. There are a lot of Hotels available nearby the Botanical Garden. Some Hotels I could highly recommend for its cleanliness and conveniences are Santika Hotel (a three star hotel with mall, cinema and restaurants at the same compound), Salak Hotel (a four star hotel built since colonial time located right in front of Presidential Palace and nearby Botanical Garden) and Novotel Golf Course Hotel (a five star hotel located near by the traditional market and not far from the Botanical Garden). These hotels are all between reasonable prices and their foods are yummy and it is almost at no price at all. In the Botanical Garden, some pathways lie in between towering bamboo stands and climbing bougainvillea, passing through a small tropical rainforest, and ponds full of water lilies and fountains. Perhaps the garden's best-known occupant is the Titan Arun flower family or the giant Rafflesia (Bunga Bangkai), the world's largest and smelliest flower. Near the gardens' main entrance, the rather dilapidated Zoological Museum (open daily from 08.00am to 04.00pm) full with 30,000 specimens, including a complete skeleton of a blue whale, a stuffed of Javanese rhino and most impressively the remains of a huge coconut crab. Outside of the garden, there are plenty of vendors and workshop selling among others Wayang golek or Indonesian traditional puppets and local made souvenirs. If you're interested in gamelan or Javanese gongs that are using traditional methods, are also for sale around here.

The Giant Rafflesia or Bunga Bangkai

The Giant Rafflesia or Bunga Bangkai may be included in the family of Amorphophallus titanum or Titan Arum - is indeed considered as one of the largest flower in the world. Also known as the "Corpse Flower" because of its foul smell, Amorphophallus titanum is a prized addition to a number of well-known botanical gardens around the world, including London's Kew Gardens, California's Huntington Botanical Gardens and Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens as well as at Bogor Botanical Garden Indonesia. The plants have become quite famous and always attract large crowds when a particular specimen blooms at one of the above locations or at a number of others gardens around the world. One such plant was also featured in Sir David Attenborough's outstanding BBC documentary The Private Life of Plants. In fact, the native habitat of Amorphophallus titanum is the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Below, the photograph of the Titan Arum taken at Stuttgart, Germany's Wilhelma Botanical and Zoological Gardens by Lothar Grünz in October 2005.
 

The same photograph along with details about where, when and by whom the picture was taken, is available on the Wikimedia Commons website. And, another shot published on the Wilhelma website clearly shows the same building in the background as that shown in this photograph.

The blooming of the Amorphophallus titanum is certainly rare, and the flowers only last for two or three days. The specimens kept in various botanical gardens often go for several years between blooms. In "The Private Life of Plants", David Attenborough suggests that Amorphophallus titanum in the wild, bloom about once every 1000 days.

So, welcome and visit Indonesia and explore more about the Titan Arun flower family!!!