IT had experts on tenterhooks for weeks as they waited to find out if the record-breaking exotic plant's bud was an elusive flower or just a leaf.
Now staff at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh have confirmed that one of the world's biggest and smelliest flowers is about to bloom in Scotland for the first time.
The Titan Arum produced the bud several weeks ago and it has recently been growing at a few inches a day.
However until Friday it was unclear if the anticipation would be rewarded with a 48-hour blossom.
It is dubbed the corpse flower because of its odour of rotting flesh it uses to attract insects for pollinating.
A spokeswoman for the garden said it would be open from earlier in the morning and late at night when it blooms.
She said: "Our Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum), one of the world's biggest and smelliest blooms, is set to flower.
"It's a first for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and for Scotland.
"There was great excitement at the garden this morning when horticulturists discovered the bud had started to unfurl to reveal a flower.
"The plant is currently 54 inches (137cms) in height and getting bigger by the day.
"It is expected that our titan arum, which is housed in the Lowland Tropics House, will be of great interest to visitors.
"So, when it is in full bloom, and at its smelliest, the garden will be open from 9am until 9pm.
"Visit our website for details and to check its progress."
The plant comes from the the rainforest in western Sumatra, Indonesia, and lives on steep hillsides.
The plant corm was gifted to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 2003 by Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, Netherlands and is the heaviest corm recorded at 338 lb (153.9kgs).
It could take between one to two weeks for it to be in full flower.
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