New Delhi:
A man in Indonesia came across a rare and unusually large flower while walking through a forest. As it turns out, the flower has the distinction of being the largest in the world, blooming for only a few days, according to Now This News.
A video of the rare flower, which is officially called rafflesia arnoldii, has not gone viral on the internet. The clip, uploaded on Twitter, shows the giant red flower with white flecks on the petals.
A man came across this rare flower while walking through an Indonesian forest. The rafflesia arnoldii is the largest flower in the world and only blooms for a few days. It is popularly known as a corpse flower because of the overwhelmingly foul-smelling odor it gives off during bloom. pic.twitter.com/LJmJDgfpqd
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 28, 2022
Besides being the largest, the flower has another unique feature that sets it apart from other flowers. It gives off a strong and unpleasant odor, similar to that of rotten meat. Because of this, the flower is called the corpse flower.
With such peculiar properties, the flower has left many Twitter users baffled.
“It looks like something from aliens,” a user wrote.
Another said“I’m surprised no one learned about this in school.”
The corpse flower belongs to a genus of parasitic flowering plants called Rafflesia, which has a total of 28 known species, One Earth reported. Rafflesia arnoldii is the largest species of the genus. It is endemic to Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, the report added.
The flower lives in the Tetrastigma vines and takes water and nutrients from it. When it blooms from its host, the flower can grow up to 3 feet (1 m) in size, according to a report from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The smell of rotten flesh, according to the report, attracts insects such as beetles and flies that aid the flower in pollination.
Click for more trending news