Rafflesia
| Rafflesia |
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| Scientific classification |
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| Species |
Rafflesia arnoldi
Rafflesia cantleyi
Rafflesia gadutensis
Rafflesia hasseltii
Rafflesia keithii
Rafflesia kerrii
Rafflesia manillana
Rafflesia micropylora
Rafflesia patma
Rafflesia pricei
Rafflesia rochussenii
Rafflesia schadenbergiana
Rafflesia speciosa
Rafflesia tengku-adlinii
Rafflesia tuan-mudae
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Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowers. It contains 18 species (including 4 incompletely known species as recognized by Meijer [1997]), all found in South-East Asia, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra and Kalimantan, and the Philippines. The flowers have no leaves and hardly any stem, just a huge speckled 5-petaled flower with a diameter up to one meter, and weighting up to 10 kilogram. The flower smells like rotting meat, hence its local name translates to corpse flower. It is parasitic on a vine, spreading its roots inside the vine. The fruit is eaten by tree shrews.
The species Rafflesia arnoldi is the world's largest single flower. It was discovered in the Indonesian rain forest by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and Dr. Joseph Arnold in 1818.
The world's largest inflorescence is borne by Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum); its individual flowers are arranged in a spadix.
Referenced By
Flower | Flowers | Parasite | Parasites | Scandentia | Stamford Raffles | Sumatra | Surat Thani province | Thomas Stamford Raffles | Titan arum | Tree shrew
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