Female and male flowers
This close-up photo looking through a hole cut in the spathe of the titan arum shows the male flowers (at very top) and female flowers (dark-colored, stem-like features below the male flowers). The light-colored material sitting in between the female flowers is fly larvae left behind by flies that had been attracted by the strong odor emitted by the titan arum.
UW-Madison botanist Paul Berry pollinated the heads of the female flowers with donor pollen from a titan arum that just finished flowering at Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Fla.
Photo: Michael Rothbart