Rafflesia arnoldii

Blossom of a Riesenrafflesie

The Riesenrafflesie ( Rafflesia arnoldii ) is a flowering plant in the genus Rafflesia ( Rafflesia ) from the small family of Rafflesiengewächse ( Rafflesiaceae ). Its flowers measure up to one meter in diameter and up to 11 kilograms. Thus it has the largest flowers in the plant kingdom. The species was named after Joseph Arnold, who discovered it along with Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.

Description

The plants are full parasites that live entirely within their hosts. There they consist only of a mycelium -like, with haustoria interspersed braid. Roots, shoots and leaves are not formed.

There are dioecious getrenntgeschlechtige dioecious plants. Outside of the host plant is merely a flower to recognize which rests the ground. As with all Rafflesia imitates in color and smell carrion after, and also attracts insects, mainly flies for pollination to. Due to their huge flowers Rafflesia arnoldii has become a tourist attraction.

Systematics and distribution

There are two different varieties.

• Rafflesia arnoldii var arnoldii is native to Borneo in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan Barat.
• Rafflesia arnoldii var atjehensis ( Coord ) Meijer ( Syn: Rafflesia atjehensis Coord ) grows in the province of Bengkulu on Sumatra island belonging to Indonesia.