Big Bloomer in Tokyo~

The media has been excited the last few days about the rare blooming of a titan arum (the world’s largest flower) at a garden in Tokyo~

At the Koishikawa Botanical Gardens — managed by the University of Tokyo — the titan arum bloomed for the first time in 1991. The plant that flowered just recently was grown from a seed given by an American researcher in 1993~

On the afternoon of July 22, the leaves surrounding the 1.5-meter-tall stem began to open. The plant reached “full bloom” at around 7 p.m. the same day, with a diameter of about 80 centimeters~

The distinctive feature of the titan arum is its strong smell reminiscent of rotten meat, which the plant gives off to attract insects for pollination~