Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. It contains 15-19 species (including four incompletely known species as recognized by Meijer 1997), all found in southeastern Asia, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra and Kalimantan, West Malaysia, and the Philippines. The flowers have no leaves and hardly any stem, just a huge speckled five-petaled flower with a diameter up to 106 cm, and weighing up to 10 kg. Even the smallest species, R. manillana, has 20 cm diameter flowers. The flowers smell like rotting meat, hence its local names which translate to "corpse flower" or "meat flower". The vile smell that the flower gives off can sometimes attract flies. It is parasitic on vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), spreading its roots inside the vine. The fruit is eaten by tree shrews and other forest mammals. Rafflesia is an official state flower of Sabah in Malaysia, as well as for the Surat Thani Province, Thailand.

Species

• Rafflesia arnoldii
• 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

Unverified species

• Rafflesia borneensis
• Rafflesia ciliata
• Rafflesia titan
• Rafflesia witkampii

The species Rafflesia arnoldii has the world's largest single flower. It was discovered in the Indonesian rain forest by an Indonesian guide working for Dr. Joseph Arnold in 1818, and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.

For comparisons, the world's largest inflorescence is borne by the Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera). The largest unbranched inflorescence is the Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) from the family Araceae.

See also

• Parasitic plant
• Vileplume - A Pokémon, its appearance based on the rafflesia.
• Wild World- A video game when you have many weeds, you get rafflesia in your town.

External links

• ARKive - images and movies of the rafflesia (Rafflesia spp)
• Parasitic Plants: Rafflesia

Rafflesiaceae | Flora of Indonesia | Flora of Malaysia | Flora of the Philippines | Flora of Thailand

Rafflesie | Rafleziacoj | Bunga Patma | Rafflesia (geslacht) | ラフレシア | Raflésia