A rare native of the rain forests of Sumatra, an island in western Indonesia, the titan arum grows from a tuber that typically sprouts and sheds one massive leaf each year until it reaches a threshold weight of between 20 and 40 pounds. Once the ABG specimen reached that threshold on June 12, a flower shoot emerged from the tuber and grew at a rate of about four inches a day until it reached its fully erect flowering position on Independence Day. The flower - which lasts only a few days - collapsed on July 8th.

Although it is often described as the largest flower in the world, A. titanum actually produces an inflorescence, or compound flower. The flower emits a pungent odor of decaying flesh to attract the carrion-eating insects that pollinate it in its native habitat. ABG staff attempted to artifically pollinate the arum using pollen obtained from a titan arum that bloomed in June at Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami. According to Ron Gagliardo, curator of tropicals at ABG’s Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory, “If the pollination is successful, it will be the first time in history a cultivated Amorphophallus titanum will have produced seed.” In addition, pollen collected from the ABG plant was put in cold storage in readiness to be shipped around the world for the next inflorescence that blooms.