20th flowering of titan arum at the Botanic Garden!

Last August, Meise Botanic Garden set a world record by growing and flowering the world's largest titan arum, measuring 322.50 cm in height and weighing 112 kilos. This record was certified and precisely measured by a bailiff. The previous Guinness record was held in 2010 by Louis Riccardiello in Gilford, in the United States, with a height of 310 cm.

Since the first flowering in 2008, 20 inflorescences of titan arums have bloomed at Meise Botanic Garden, including four this year, attracting large numbers of visitors each time. Our record-breaker was sown by the Ghent Botanic Garden in 2005 and arrived in Meise in 2014. The flowering of an titan arum remains a rarity. Thanks to the skills of our gardeners, who groom and care for our titan arums, our Garden now has five healthy adult specimens. Among them, one or more flower alternately each year.

Thanks to the recently inaugurated Green Ark, we can create ideal growing conditions. These also allow us to carry out advanced research to establish protection programmes for threatened species such as the titan arum.

Approved by children!

Meise Botanic Garden is one of the Belgian tourist attractions to have just been awarded the ‘Child-friendly’ label. Created by museumPASSmusées, Vlieg and Marmaille & co, this label, marked with a blue dot, means that the museum or attraction is specially adapted to the needs and interests of children and families. To obtain this label, a site must not only offer a varied range of activities for children, but also be highly rated by families who have already visited it.

Meise Botanic Garden is very proud to have been awarded this label, which recognises the efforts made over the last few years to extend our range of fun and educational activities for children, such as treasure hunts on the trail of King Amaryllo or ‘Vlieg the fly’, the ‘barefoot’ trail, and not just educational but especially creative games, etc. Facilities such as well-marked routes, rest areas and a sufficient number of toilets ensure that families enjoy their visit.

Parents can therefore be sure that a visit to Meise Botanic Garden will be both fun and relaxing for their children, with a good mix of learning and playing in, and discovering, nature.

Excellence Roses at Meise Botanic Garden!

Meise Botanic Garden has been added as a judging site for Excellence Roses, a seal of approval for strong, healthy and richly flowering roses that perform well without plant protection products. These inspections have been carried out since 2018 by under the auspices of the 'Culture Group for Roses and Rose rootstocks under Anthos secretariat'. Including Meise, there are now six locations: three in the Netherlands and three in Belgium.

The Rose Garden at Meise Botanic Garden, opened in 2019 and designed as a budding rose, is the place of choice for the process. Roses are assessed for three years for criteria such as health, vigour and flowering richness. Roses that meet the requirements receive the Excellence Roses designation. Currently, 76 varieties have this quality mark.

The inclusion of Meise is seen as a valuable addition that will provide additional data and increase awareness of Excellence Roses.

All Excellence Roses can be found on the KVBC website.

For the removal of offensive plant names

At the 20th International Botanical Congress, held in Madrid last July, botanists voted to remove plant names containing offensive terms, including a racial slur used during the Apartheid era. Among the participants, Quentin Groom from Meise Botanic Garden nevertheless drew attention in an interview in science.org  to the possible consequences of these changes: ‘Even small name changes could have repercussions, unforeseen consequences that entail costs and difficulties for everyone’, he pointed out, referring to the practical challenges involved in changing scientific names that are already established.

Nevertheless, the majority of botanists present, including Quentin Groom, Marc Sosef and Henry Engledow from Meise Botanic Garden, decided to change the names of hundreds of species, for example by deleting a ‘c’ in more than 300 scientific names, in order to remove references to ‘caffra’, a derogatory term used during Apartheid in South Africa. The vote also paved the way for the creation of a framework for evaluating and possibly changing the names of new species deemed offensive, after the 1st January 2026. Rather than creating a new committee, the botanists entrusted this task to an existing committee responsible for examining objections to new scientific names.

Lichen inventories in the Semois Valley

The Semois Valley National Park, one of two new national parks in Wallonia, covers 28,903 hectares in the south of the country. Its mission is to protect and sustainably develop natural ecosystems and landscapes. Between now and 2026, a number of initiatives will be undertaken to increase scientific knowledge of the park's natural heritage, including detailed inventories of species, sensitive forest habitats and watercourses.
Meise Botanic Garden has been commissioned to carry out lichen inventories to guide conservation and restoration measures. The old-growth forests of the Semois are particularly rich in rare species of lichen, which are disappearing everywhere else in Belgium due to air pollution and logging. Training in recognising the lichens that are emblematic of old-growth forests has already been given to the National Park's project managers.

Damien Ertz of the Botanic Garden had already recorded nineteen new species of lichen and lichenicolous fungi for Belgium, including some of great heritage value (more info). The new inventories, which began this year, are primarily targeting sites rich in natural rocky elements within old-growth forests. They promise to bring new discoveries, which we will share in a forthcoming Musa.

New partnership with Enabel

On 2 September, Meise Botanic Garden and Enabel, the Belgian development agency, signed a cooperation agreement defining the framework of a valuable partnership. Thanks to Enabel's support, Meise Botanic Garden will be able to carry out a number of development projects, particularly in Central Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in the province of South Kivu, the first concrete project is underway. As part of the Belgian cooperation programme with the DRC, Meise Botanic Garden will be identifying wild mushroom species that can be produced and consumed there. In collaboration with the University of Bukavu, local people will cultivate the species identified locally, enabling them to supplement existing food systems.

This research and development work will also be carried out in synergy with Agri-Sud-Kivu, a project that Enabel has been running in the region since 2023. It aims to tackle food insecurity and improve livelihoods and incomes through sustainable agriculture.

Enabel and the Botanic Garden will be setting up other specific cooperation projects in the future, including in the fields of forest agriculture, reforestation, edible plant species, biodiversity conservation, etc.

• Autumn Walk (21/09/24 - 20/12/24)
• Biennial Cultural Fire (Until 30/09/24)
• Summer quest for children - Treasures of fly (Until 30/09/24)
• Master class: Nature drawing for advanced and enthusiasts with Marijke Meersman (21/09 & 23/11/24)
• Workshop: Nature drawing for beginners (22/09 & 24/11/24)
• Cooking workshops (26/09 & 10/10/24)
• Expo Ikebana (28/09 - 29/09)
• Workshop Botanical drawing (12/10 & 13/10)
• Expo: Belgian plant hunters of the 19th century (From mid-October)
• Forest baths - Taste with all your senses (20/10/24)
• Scary Night (30/10 to 02/11/24)
• GPS hunt (until 31/12/24)
• Workshop Nature Photography High Key (01/12/24)

> All our activities

The Persian silk tree

The Persian silk tree (Albizia julibrissin), also known as mimosa tree, belongs to the legume family (Fabaceae). It originated in ancient Persia and China. With its remarkable flowers and leaves that close at night, this tree is a real eye-catcher. The Albizia genus includes 150 species of fast-growing trees and shrubs in subtropical and Mediterranean regions around the world.

The genus Albizia owes its name to the naturalist Filippo degli Albizzi, who introduced the Persian silk tree to Europe in 1749. The species name, julibrissin, comes from the Farsi ‘gul-i-abrischin’. ‘Gul’ means flower, “abrischin” silk, in reference to the long silky stamens (silk tree). The silk tree is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 10 metres high, its branches spreading widely horizontally. The umbel-shaped crown provides considerable shade. The large, compound, double pinnate leaves with their finely wrinkled edges do not appear until mid-May. The tree has a day/night rhythm: the leaves close after sunset and open at dawn. This opening and closing is called nyctinasty; this plant movement also occurs in other species of the legume family. From July onwards, the tree flowers, the pink stamens being numerous and very prominent, and the flower heads resembling powdery brushes. After flowering, the flattened pods appear. In October, the leaves turn yellow and fall off, and the tree enters a long winter's rest.

Chinese herbalists call it ‘ prozac plant’ because the flowers contain antidepressant substances. The bark contains saponins with anti-cancer properties. Because of its particular beauty and medicinal uses, it is a source of joie de vivre, earning it the nickname ‘the tree of collective happiness’ in China. 

The Culinary Garden and the Flower Theatre are home to this beautiful shade tree. In the Plant Palace, you'll find Albizia forbesii, A. polycephala, A. saman and A. procera.

In the Garden Shop at the Impératrice Charlotte entrance, you'll find unique products and plants inspired by nature.

Recall of floral candles

During the period 2021-2024, Meise Botanic Garden sold floral candles made by Koncha. The use of these candles revealed that there could be a fire hazard due to a design flaw in the candles. The Botanic Garden immediately stopped selling these candles. This concerns only the candles. The lantern with a tea light in the middle can be used safely. We ask purchasers of this type of candle not to use them and to return them to the Garden Shop where they were purchased. The purchase price will be refunded. Meise Botanic Garden always strives to sell safe products. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

For more information, please contact the Garden Shop on 02/896 60 33 or at

tuinwinkel@plantentuinmeise.be 

New book on arums

Discover the new book livre “Penisplanten, Aronskelkfamilie” from Maarten Strack van Schijndel, volunteer at the ‘Meise Botanic Garden’. Through spectacular photographs, explore the fascinating details of the 500 members of the arum family, including the legendary titan arum. All the texts of the preface are translated in a supplementary English booklet which is included with the book. Available from the Meise Botanic Garden shop and online.

Bulbs to brighten up the garden!

Our Garden Shop offers you a new range of around thirty varieties of bulbs, over 80% of which are from organic farming. The emphasis is on botanical species and varieties that are hardier and better adapted to our climates, but also more attractive to bees and other pollinating insects.

Prices: between €6 and €7 for packs of around 10 bulbs, and €22 for a bag containing a botanical mix of 100 bulbs.

For sale at the Garden Shop.

(c) Meise Botanic Garden

Contributors to this issue: Koen Es, Quentin Groom, Franck Hidvégi, Min Pauwels, Barbara Puttemans, Manon van Hoye.

Musa is produced by the Education Department.

Editor in chief: Koen Es

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