A rare giant flower, known as the "corpse flower" for its rotting-meat smell — is set to bloom at Western Illinois University this week. It's one of a small group of these flowers that have bloomed in cultivation since the 1880s.
As of Monday, the mega flower (one of four in the university's greenhouse), was 44.5 inches tall, having grown nearly 4 inches in 24 hours. In the wild, the plant can grow as big as 20 feet tall and 15 feet across.
"The Titans in the WIU Botany Greenhouse will only get about half that," said Jeff Hillyer, greenhouse gardner at WIU.
For more pictures click - Corpse Flower
The flower, whose scientific name is Amorphophallustitanum and is also known as Titan Arum, is native to the equatorial rainforests of central Sumatra in western Indonesia.
For most of its life, the corpse flower grows vegetatively, only producing a single, umbrella-like leaf. The bloom (or inflorescence) of the flower is actually composed of thousands of flowers. The flower's nickname comes from the odor of the bloom, which smells like rotting meat.
In its native environment, the Titan Arum is pollinated by carrion beetles and flesh flies, which are attracted to the horrendous
odor. The flower is a member of the Araceae family that includes plants such as Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Calla Lilly and
Philodendron.
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