With its huge flowering structure (inflorescence) rising some 3m above the ground and its single immense leaf, titan arum certainly is a giant among plants, as its name suggests.
A blooming giant
The massive inflorescence consists of a bell-shaped spathe, up to 3 m in circumference, with ribbed sides and a frilled edge, around a central spike-like spadix. On the outside, the enveloping spathe is green speckled with cream, but its interior is rich crimson. At its base, the spathe forms a chamber enclosing the flowers which are carried at the lower end of the greyish-yellow spadix. The inflorescence arises from an underground corm, a swollen stem modified to store food for the plant. This corm, more or less spherical in shape and weighing 70 kg or more, is the largest such structure known in the plant kingdom.
A giant leaf
After flowering, the inflorescence dies back and in its place a single leaf emerges. Reaching the size of a small tree, up to 6m tall and 5m across, the leaf consists of a sturdy glossy green stalk mottled with cream which divides into three at its apex and bears numerous leaflets. Sugars made in the leaf are transported back to the corm for storage as starch. Each year, the leaf withers before a new one develops, using the corm’s energy stores. Eventually, the corm becomes dormant for up to 4 months before another inflorescence emerges, growing upwards at a rate of some 10 cm per day.
2007-03-09 01:41:36
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answer #1
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answered by BARROWMAN 6
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The Giant Redwoods. They can grow to over 200 ft.The trunk circumference is about 40ft.
2007-03-09 11:15:32
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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Redwood trees. In California.
2007-03-09 01:40:40
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answer #3
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answered by thegubmint 7
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giant redwood trees,
depending if you count mosses, ivy, algea as collections of lots of inter locking plants.
2007-03-09 01:41:56
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answer #4
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answered by dsclimb1 5
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I would think Kelp. Sea plants.. they can be HUGE!
2007-03-09 02:04:35
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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the TITAN ARUM is big but whether it`s the biggest....
2007-03-09 01:43:43
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answer #6
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answered by vulcan19412003 2
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TREE
2007-03-09 01:40:29
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answer #7
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answered by Max 5
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