World'sLargest Flower

Largest Flower - Rafflesia

Rafflesia is the world's largest, the heaviest, the rarest and the one of the most stinkiest flowers in the world. It grows to 1 metre wide and weighs about 10 kgs.

Rafflesia, an indigenous species of flower in rainforest of Sumatra and Borneo, Indonesian. The archipelago one of the largest flower in the world. An Interesting fact about Rafflesia is that it is a parasitic plant with no leaves, stems, and roots. It absorbs nutrients through threads, from the host on which it grows.

Kingdom

Plantae

Division

Magnoliophyta

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Rafflesiales

Family

Rafflesiaceae

Genus

Rafflesia

Species

R. arnoldii

With five huge petals, Rafflesia can reach up to a diameter of 106 cm, and up to 10 kg in weight. Opposite to its big size and weight, unfortunately, it has a very small life of 5-7 days. It has stamens and pistils fused together in the central column, produces a ring-shapes crown. The reddish-brown pattern of the petals is sprinkled with white freckles. It takes 9 months in maturation and opens into a cabbage-sized bud. The reproductive organs are located under the rim of the disk.

Facts About Rafflesia

• Rafflesia is one of the largest flower. Amorphophallus titanum bears the largest inflorescence.
• Rafflesia is a parasite that attaches itself to a host plant, Tetrastigma vine, which grows only in undisturbed rainforests, to obtain water and nutrients.
• The genus Rafflesia is named after adventurer Sir Stamford Raffles.
• Dr. Arnold is remembered in the species name as Rafflesia arnoldii.
• Rafflesia is the official flower of two states, Sabah in Malaysia, and Surat Thani Province, Thailand.
• Rafflesia flowers are unisexual.
• Forest mammals and treeshrews feed on Rafflesia fruit which is 15cm in diameter, filled with smooth flesh and thousands of tiny hard-coated seeds.
• It is believed that this flower is related to poinsettias, violets, passionflowers, and other members of the order Malpighiales.
• The rotten smell of the flower is due to the reddish tentacle-like, branched ramentae, inside the corolla of petals.
• Rafflesia is an endangered or threatened genus.
• Rafflesia arnoldii non-chlorophyllous plant, so it cannot undergo throw photosynthesis.

Growing Rafflesia

As Rafflesia is one of the rarest plants on earth, people started to study them since 1929. They tried to cultivate the plant artificially, as the plant takes 9 to 21 months until a bud flowers - only to last for less than a week. But all the experiments ended in failure.

Largest Inflorescence

Similar in line with the Rafflesia, which is the largest single flower, The titan arum - Amorphophallus titanum, is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world of flowering plants. Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari discovered the Titan Arum in Sumatra in 1878.

Titan arum is also the native of rainforests of Sumatra. Titan arum belongs to the family Araceae. Titan arum is also called as Corpse flower due to its rotten flesh smell when the flower is in bloom. The Titan arum plant can reach to a height of 7 to 12 feet and weigh 170 pounds. In Indonesia its called as bunga bangkai.

In Titan arum, both male and female flowers grow in the same inflorescence at the base of the spadix. The female flowers open first, then in a day or two the male flowers open. This prevents the flower from self-pollinating. In Titan Arum the spathe is green outside and dark burgundy red inside, and is deeply furrowed. The spadix is hollow, and pale yellow. The upper, visible portion of the spadix is covered in pollen, while its lower extremity is spangled with bright red-orange carpels. When the Titan arum reaches full bloom, the spadix collapses from its own weight and the spathe withers away, possibly never to bloom again. In the wild, the leaf can reach 20 feet tall and 15 feet across.