Rafflesia
Rafflesia arnoldii · Plant
Rafflesia arnoldii produces the largest individual flower on Earth. It has no leaves, stems or roots of its own: it lives hidden inside a tropical vine and only becomes visible when it blooms.
Key facts
- Scientific name
- Rafflesia arnoldii
- Kind
- Plant
- Conservation status
- Rare
- Habitat
- Tropical rainforest understory
- Range
- Sumatra & Borneo
- Size
- Flower up to 1 m across
- Weight
- Flower up to about 11 kg
- Lifespan
- Flower lasts about a week
- Diet
- Holoparasite
- Activity
- Blooms for 5–7 days
- Population
- Rare and scattered; not formally assessed
Diet
It has no chlorophyll and cannot photosynthesize. Instead it draws water and nutrients from its host, a Tetrastigma vine, growing as thread-like tissue inside it.
Behavior
Buds take many months to develop. When the flower opens it smells of rotting meat, attracting the carrion flies that pollinate it.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Plantae
- Phylum
- Tracheophyta
- Class
- Magnoliopsida
- Order
- Malpighiales
- Family
- Rafflesiaceae
- Genus
- Rafflesia
- Species
- R. arnoldii
Conservation
Not yet assessed on the IUCN Red List, but botanists consider most Rafflesia species threatened. Many remaining populations grow outside protected areas.
Main threats
- Rainforest clearing
- Harvesting of buds
- Very small, isolated populations