World's Largest Flower Rafflesia
Credits: nydailynews.com
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World’s Largest Flower Rafflesia

Indonesian conservationists have spotted the biggest specimen ever of what’s already been billed as one of the world’s largest flowers- The Rafflesia tuan-mudae. The researchers termed it as “Breathtaking, majestic and stinky.”

The exciting discovery of the oversized Rafflesia tuan-mudae — a giant bright red flower whose petals show hundreds of discolored spots resembling blisters — broke a previous record. Rafflesia is the name of a large group of plants all of which smell of rotting flesh to attract flies and carrion beetles.

According to the conservationists, the recent discovery of the World’s Largest Flower Rafflesia measures 3.6 feet (111 centimeters) in diameter, 4 centimeters larger than the previous record-holder, a specimen found in the same area several years ago. That’s bigger than the previous record of 107 centimeters on a bloom also found in the jungles of West Sumatra several years ago.

Ade Putra at the Agam Conservation Agency in Sumatra said that this specimen was the largest Rafflesia tuan-mudae that has ever been documented.

World's Largest Flower Rafflesia
Credits: dailymail.co.uk

The World’s Largest Flower Rafflesia live as a parasite on vines but only blooms for a few days at a time. The parasitic plant, usually found in Southeast

Asia, only blooms for about a week. After that, the flower withers and rots.

According to reports, the flower is named after Sir Stamford Raffles, a British colonialist known as the founder of Singapore, who first spotted one in Indonesia in the early 19th Century.

With no roots or leaves, the World’s Largest Flower Rafflesia feeds on a host plant, drinking its nutrients to survive.

World’s Largest Flower is sometimes referred to as a “corpse flower” for the stench that it gives out — similar to rotting flesh — to attract insects to pollinate it.

Editor’s Note: World’s Largest Flower, World’s Largest Flower Rafflesia, Largest Flower In The World

Rahul Mishra is a Science enthusiast and eager to learn something new each day. He has a degree in Microbiology and has joined forces with Biotecnika in 2019 due to his passion for writing and science.

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