In the world there appears a strange plant that has no stem, leaves or roots, and grows parasitically in other climbing plants. But what is most special is that it blooms into a giant flower and emits a scent that is likened to rotten meat.
Rafflesia is a parasitic flower. It was discovered by an Indonesian native in an Indonesian rainforest in 1818, and got its name from Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who headed that year’s expedition. This clade includes about 26 species, all located in Southeast Asia, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra and Kalimantan, West Malaysia and the Philippines.
Flowering plants do not have stems, leaves or roots. It grows parasitically inside climbing plants on the ground, spreading root-like suckers inside the climbing plant’s tissue. The only part of the plant visible outside the main body is the five-petaled flower. In some species, such as Rafflesia arnoldii, the flower can be up to 100 cm in diameter and weigh 10 kg.
Even the smallest species, R. manillana, produces flowers 20 cm in diameter. The flower both looks and smells like rotting meat, so locals call it “corpse flower” or “rotten meat flower”. That special smell is intended to attract insects such as flies to spread pollen from male flowers to female flowers.
The name “corpse flower” also confuses people with the Titan Arum plant (Amorphophallus titanum) in the Araceae family. In addition, the Amorphophallus tree also has the world’s largest branchless inflorescence, so it is sometimes said to be the world’s largest flower.
Rafflesia arnoldii has the largest flower of any flowering plant, at least in terms of weight. The Amorphophallus titanum tree has the largest branchless inflorescence, while the Talipot palm tree blooms the largest flower branch, consisting of thousands of flowers.
