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Once in a Bloom Moon

Most of us till date were unaware of the largest flower in the world. Today in Tokyo, Japan the ‘Amorphophallus Titanum’ flower bloomed at the Jindai Botanical Garden after five years. It is the largest flower but in the category of unbranched inflorescence – a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. It grows upwards of six feet and this particular flower towers upto 6.5 feet.

It is also called the ‘corpse flower’ due to the rotten meat like odor it emits for the 48 hours that it blooms. This smell is a ploy to attract insect pollinators. A native to the rainforests of western Sumatara, Indonesia, it classified as a ‘vulnerable’ species. The swollen underground storage stem (tuber) of the flower can weigh more than 75kg. It is also known to reach about 10 feet high.

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