After prayers and a little luck, the world's tallest sunflower on record now stands nearly the height of a residential telephone pole.
A "monster bloom" grown in the backyard of an Indiana family beat out the previous Guinness World Record sunflower grown in Germany nearly a decade ago, the the global authority on all things record-breaking announced on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
"This truly is an incredible story. Guinness World Records just made the record official today!" Alex Babich, a landscape gardener from Fort Wayne who grew the plant and named it Clover, told USA TODAY.
"With some green-fingered support from his family," Guinness wrote in its announcement, the plant was confirmed to be 10.90 meters – about 35 feet and 9 inches – high, from the base of its stem to the tip of its highest flower.
According to the Indiana Native Plant Society, the plants are an "easy to grow species that tolerates a wide range of conditions and attracts a wide array of butterflies, bees and flies."
