The largest flower in the world comes from a leafless plant from Mayla known as Rafflesia arnoldii.
It’s a parasitic plant that has grapevine like roots and a fleshy flower which is the only part of the plant that appears above the ground.
The flower is approximately three foot across and can weigh up to five pounds.
The plant is said to exude an order similar to decaying flesh which attracts carrion flies that pollinate the plant.
Rafflesia arnoldii Size
According to the Guiness Book of Records, the largest flower in the world came from the Rafflesia Arnoldii.
The flower measured three feet in diameter, was 3/4 inch thick and weighed fifteen pounds.
Rafflesia arnoldii Flower
This magnificiently colourful flower is both strange and baffling.
It blooms as a single flower which has no roots, no stem or leaves.
Rafflesia arnoldii Propagation
Propogation of this unique plant is rather tricky.
Each flower produces just one seed and this seed can only germinate if it succeeds in lodging itself in the tissue of one particular cissus vine host known as Tetrastigma, which usually crawls along the rainforest floors.
Rafflesia is usually floor bound.
The flower extracts food from the vine by extending threadlike filaments into its tissue.
Its penchant for attaching exclusively to the Tetrastigma partly explains why the flower is very rare.
The sighting of this flower in it’s natural habitat depends on a combination of planning, keeping in touch with people in the know, and a big batch of luck.
Other Names For Rafflesia arnoldii
The plant is commonly called the “stinking corpse lily.”
It has also comonly been dubbed the “giant panda of the plant world” because this rare and endangered species only naturally grows in the rain forests of Sumatra and Borneo in the Malay Archipelago.
You would have to see this plant to believe how very odd it is.
A plant to see if you ever get the chance.
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How To Grow Tropical Plants
Growing tropical plants - also known as houseplants - indoors is fun and enjoyable plus many of them clean the indoor of pollutants.
It is easy to grow exotic looking plants that produce tropical fruit and colorful flowers in a pot in your living room or office.
Many of these plants are easy to start from seed and I share with you five plants that I recommend for indoor growing.
I also share with you why growing your own tropical fruit saves money.
In this video you will learn:
How to bring tropical plants indoors at the end of summer
How to grow tropical plants indoors
How to protect and overwinter tropical plants outdoors in cold climates
How to propagate tropical plants
How to water tropcial plants
How to grow topical plants in a greenhouse
