World's Tallest Flower Blooms

The world's tallest flower bloomed this week at a height of 2.94 meters, 18 centimetres more than the record for the species, Stuttgart botanical garden officials said. The Titan Arum, or Amorphophallus Titanum, nicknamed "corpse flower" because of its putrid stench, blooms rarely and briefly, and wilts after a day. The Titan Arum was discovered in 1878 in Sumatra, Indonesia, the plant's only native habitat. The flower, whose bulb weighed 40 kilograms (24 pounds), is 11 years old.