The largest flower in the world
It is a very strange and incredible plant. The Rafflesia is a disembodied flower, it produces no leaves, stems or roots but lives as a parasite on the Tetrastigma vine. It can be found primarily in the tropical forests of Indonesia. Almost one meter wide and weighing over 7kg it’s one of the world’s rarest and most endangered plants.
Inside the cauldron-like cup is a spiked disc. The blossom is pollinated by flies attracted by its scent, which resembles that of rotting flesh. For period of 12 months, it swells to a cabbage-like head that bursts around midnight under the cover of a rainy night to reveal this startling, lurid-red flower. But the full-grown flower lasts only about a week before it dies.
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