One Plant You Definitely Won’t Want to Smell:
'Corpse Flower' That has Odour like Rotten Flesh Captured in Full Bloom in Indonesia
- Titan arum is seen in full bloom, an unpredictable and spectacular event
- The rare flower smells like rotting flesh to attract insects
- It has largest cluster of flowers in the world
By Daily Mail UK
A rare flower that has earned the nickname 'corpse flower' for the foul smell it emits has been captured in bloom in Indonesia.
The magnificent titan arum was captured in bloom at Djuanda Botanical Garden in Bandung, West Java. It is difficult to see in its full glory as it blooms on an incredibly unpredictable schedule.
The plant, also known as amorphophallus titanum (roughly translated from ancient Greek as 'misshapen giant phallus') has the largest unbranched cluster of flowers, or inflorescence, in the world.
Floral spectacle: Visitors look at a blooming titan arum at Djuanda Botanical Garden
in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. It is well-known for smelling like rotting meat
The smell resembles rotting meat to attract the carrion-eating beetles and flesh flies that pollinate it.
The flower's deep-red colour also contributes to the illusion that it is a piece of meat.
It is unique to the western region of Sumatra, an island in western Indonesia, where it grows in openings in rainforests on limestone hills, and the leaf structure can reach up to six metres (20 ft) tall and five metres (16 ft) across.
Magnificent: The 'corpse flower' is an incredible sight, but it smells like dead animals so it can attract insects to pollinate it