Why is the rafflesia a spectacular parasitic plant?

The rafflesia arnoldii is a parasitic plant that lives inside the host plant for months.

So, it is rarely seen, as it gets all its nutrients from the host, which is a vine. It makes a dramatic entry into the outside world only at its flowering season.

This is the time when flowers first bud through the woody vine, and open into breath-taking magnificence.

The refflesia produces the largest single flowers in the world. The flowers can take up to ten months to develop for the first visible bud to the open bloom, which may last to more than a few days. The leathery petals can be up to a metre in width.

Although spectacularly beautiful, rafflesia flowers are unfortunately, very stinky. They smell of rooting flesh! Rafflesias are found most commonly in Sumatra, and also in primary rain forests.

The Rafflesia plant spends most of its life unseen.

 

Picture Credit : Google