World's Largest Flower

An anonymous reader writes "The Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) produces the world's largest flower and is currently in bud at the University Botanic Gardens Bonn (Germany). As of Thursday, 12 a.m. it is set to break the old world record established in 1932. The old record was 267 cm while the new bud is now 273 cm and still growing."

Comments

Name it

[lechuck80]

They named it Audry II, and that kid is standing way too close in a few of those pictures.

Slashdot fun

[aridhol]

Look - they have a graph of hits over time at the bottom. Let's see how well that thing scales ;)

The Big Stinky

[moonboy]

I saw something about this the other day. I think the workers there refer to it as the "The Big Stink" or something like that. Supposedly it periodically puts off a horrendous odor. Probably a SBD (Silent But Deadly).

Re:Bud? Did someone say "Bud?"

[BrynM]

It's nice to know, even in our modern times, that someone is still out there trying to eat/drink/smoke anything. Humanity couldn't have gotten this far without willing testers like you dying off to prove things like we can't smoke kerosine, but we can salt meat to make it last longer.

Amorphophallus Titanum

[lindsayt]

This thing seems to have been named quite aptly.

Going back to our Latin roots:

• Amorpho = amorphous = Lacking definite form or shapeless
• phallus = phallus = male penis or female clitoris, or a representation of the penis illustrating generative power
• Titanum = titan = of prodigious size, strength or achievement

So this flower is "scientifically" defined as an unusually huge and shapeless representation of the male penis. This is why men shouldn't name flowers...

Of course to be fair, that gigantic flower is after all the plant's sex organ, so perhaps the description is apt...

Definitions courtesy of Dictionary.com

Re:Amorphophallus Titanum

[s-orbital]

So basically a flower with a scientific name of "Huge Misshapen Dick" There is a flower to give to your S/O.

Now that's a corsage...

[eXtro]

If that doesn't get you into your prom dates panties nothing will.

Re:Now that's a corsage...

[presearch]

You don't think the stench of rotting fish would detract from its seductive qualities?

Do you mean the the flower or the prom date?

Suddenly.... (susan)

[KurdtX]

All of a sudden Little Shop of Horrors seems a lot more scary - it seems a lot more possible now. Just need to hide a wireless speaker in there to really scare people.