Brief SummaryRead full entry BiologyThe giant leaves and flowers
of the titan arum are produced from an equally enormous tuber
that lies under the rainforest soil, and acts as a food storage
organ (4). Each year the leaf dies back before a new one
develops but eventually the inflorescence begins to emerge in
its place, growing at an amazing 10 cm a day (3). Once the
spathe has unfurled in all its glory the female flowers are
ready to receive pollinators. The spadix heats up emitting a
putrid stench that has lead to the Indonesian name for this
flower of 'bunga bangkai' or 'corpse flower' (2). It is thought
that the smell helps to attract carrion beetles or sweat bees
from far away; once inside the welcoming spathe they are
trapped, unable to scale the smooth walls or the bulge in the
spadix that tops the flowers. Male flowers release their pollen
the next day and the appendix of the spadix begins to wither,
thus allowing the insects to escape, brushing through the pollen
on their way (2). This mechanism of co