Rare Giant Flower Blooms in Japan

The world's largest flower bloomed at a botanical garden in Tokyo's Koishikawa district on July 22 -- the sixth such success story in the country.

The titan arum is a rare species native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The tall stem in the center is surrounded by thousands of male and female flowers and wrapped by a red-purple bract leave, which looks like a flower petal. The shape of the plant became the origin of its Japanese name meaning a gigantic candleholder.

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.