Rafflesia

Rafflesia
Rafflesia arnoldii flowers in Bengkulu, Indonesia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Rafflesiaceae
Genus: Rafflesia
R.Br. ex Thomson bis[1]
Type species
Rafflesia arnoldii R.Br.
Species

See Classification section

Rafflesia (/rəˈfliːz(i)ə, -ˈfliːʒ(i)ə, ræ-/),[2] or stinking corpse lily,[3] is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae.[4] The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flower in the world. Plants of the World Online lists up to 41 species from this genus,[4] all of them are found throughout Southeast Asia.

Western Europeans first learned about plants of this genus from French surgeon and naturalist Louis Deschamps when he was in Java between 1791 and 1794; but his notes and illustrations, seized by the British in 1803, were not available to western science until 1861.[5] The first British person to see one was Joseph Arnold in 1818, in the Indonesia rainforest in Bengkulu, Sumatra, after a Malay servant working for him discovered a flower and pointed it out to him.[6] The flower, and the genus, was later named after Stamford Raffles,[7] the leader of the expedition and the founder of the British colony of Singapore.

The following is from Arnold's account of discovering the flower:[6]

Here I rejoice to tell you I happened to meet with what I consider as the greatest prodigy of the vegetable world. I had ventured some way from the party, when one of the Malay servants came running to me ... To tell you the truth, had I been alone, and had there been no witnesses, I should, I think, have been fearful of mentioning the dimensions of this flower, so much does it exceed every flower I have seen or heard of.

Vivid contemporary accounts documenting some of the most inaccessible species of Rafflesia are described in the popular science book, Pathless Forest: The Quest to Save the World's Largest Flowers, by botanist Chris Thorogood based at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.

  1. ^ "Rafflesia". International Plant Names Index. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries and Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  2. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference McNeely was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b "Rafflesia R.Br. ex Gray". Plants of the World Online. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  5. ^ Willem, Meijer (1997). "Rafflesiaceae". Flora Malesiana. Vol. 13. Leiden: Hortus Botanicus Leiden, under auspices of Foundation Flora Malesiana. pp. 1–42. ISBN 90-71236-33-1.
  6. ^ a b Keng, Hsuan (1978). Orders and Families of Malayan Seed Plants (revised ed.). Singapore: Singapore University Press (original published by University of Malaya Press 1969). p. 106.
  7. ^ "Rafflesia". Infopedia. Government of Singapore. Retrieved 30 September 2022.