• Discovered in Sumatra by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari in 1878.
  
  
• Found only in the equatorial tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia.
  
  
• Seeds sent by Dr. Beccari to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (via Italy) were grown and the first blooming of this species in cultivation occurred at Kew in 1889.
  
  
• The first recorded bloom in the U.S. was at the New York Botanical Garden in 1937, where it caused quite a sensation.
  
  
• So rarely blooms in cultivation that the Huntington's 1999 flowering was only the 11^th recorded bloom in the U.S., and the first ever in California.
  
  
• Grows from a large tuber which can reach 170 pounds or more. The Huntington's tuber was 18 inches in diameter and 40 pounds when received in March from Mark Dimmitt of Arizona.
  
  
• Said to be the largest "flower" (in sheer bulk) in the world, it is technically an "inflorescence," or a cluster of flowers. The spadix can reach over 6 feet tall (the tallest ever recorded was over 10 feet), and when fully open the spathe can reach about 3 feet across. The largest true flower in the world is the Titan Arum's compatriot Rafflesia arnoldii, found in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo.
  
  
• Thousands of true flowers are hidden inside at the base of the spadix (the fleshy central column). The large frilly-edged leafy structure enclosing the spadix is called the spathe. The completely unfurled spathe resembles an upturned fluted bell with a maroon interior. Only when the spathe is completely unfurled are the flowers mature. Male and female flowers are separate, with the female flowers receptive first, the male flowers releasing pollen the next day; this ensures cross-pollination. A plant cannot produce seed unless pollen is provided from another plant. The spathe unfurls about 3 weeks after the bud tip first appears. The flower typically stays open for two days.
  
  
• When the flower is fully open, it emits a repulsive scent (hence its Indonesian common name of Corpse flower). The odor, strongest at night, is to attract pollinators, which in its Sumatran home are thought to be carrion beetles and sweat bees.
  
  
• A single, huge umbrella-like leaf appears alternately with the flower and is itself quite "titanic." In cultivation it can reach over 12 feet high, its stalk in the wild can reach 20 feet tall and 15 feet across. The single stalk grows several feet tall and as thick as a person's thigh before branching into a compound leaf. An individual leaf may live for about a year before dying. The tuber then enters a short dormant period before producing another leaf or flower.

Links to outside resources on the Amorphophallus titanum:

JPL Sensorweb
Fairchild Tropical Garden
University of Bonn Botanical Garden
Amorphophallus page on the International Aroid Society page
BBC Online Network News "World's Biggest Flower Blooms"
BBC Online Network News "World's Biggest Flower Bears Fruit"
Photograph of a full grown leaf
A site with photos and links to other sites
UCSB's Amorphaphallus Titanum: "Tiny"
Thermal Images of Titan Arum During Bloom