How long does the rafflesia arnoldii live

Rafflesia was thought to be pollinated by elephant but in fact, it is pollinated by the Calliphora vicina and Lucilia caesar , commonly known as blowfly. These two species are parasites to the elephant. The existence of this Rafflesia flower is special for the locals in Southeastern Asia as it blooms just at the vicinity of their backyards.

We should consider conserving the nature to help this endangered species to continue its existence in this Earth. Remember, it is a collective effort not individuals. Simplest rule would be not to pluck their buds and flowers. Also to be careful while trekking along the jungle canopy so that you would not step on these flowers. If you are in Kuching, Sarawak and keen to see the Rafflesia flower with your own eyes, do contact us.

Gunung Gading National Park is well known with the flower budding abundantly within the care of Sarawak Forestry so you can visit their FB page for updated information before planning on visiting. As Rafflesia flower only blooms for short time as we have learned previously , it really depends on your luck to be able to witness the flower blooming. If you want to see the flower while also supporting local villagers within rural community, why not join us on a bundle trip where you will also get to visit village farm and their secluded waterfall trekking.

You will surely enjoy it! The Rafflesia flower is known for being huge, leathery and speckled five-petaled flower. Considered one of the rarest in the world not only for its gigantic petals but also for the putrid smell it emits to attract pollinators and prey, the genus rafflesia is endemic in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Arnoldii - max. The Rafflesia may be the heavyweight champion among blooms, but it is also extremely shy and temperamental. The world's largest flower, an allegedly stunning sight, is a rare, short-term bloomer and so temperamental, even Singapore's Botanic Gardens has not yet succeeded in growing its own. Once a year the Rafflesia grows to a diameter of one metre-plus with five cabbage-lookalike, leather-textured, dull-red spotted petals and with a bowl-like centre that could swallow up a drain cat and that does swallow flies and insects for its own sustenance.

But it may take up to nine months to spring from seed to pod to flower, and it stays in bloom for just a few days upper limit: one week. No one can forecast just when, either. Perhaps the only part of Rafflesia that is identifiable as distinctly plant-like are the flowers; however, even these are bizarre because they attain massive proportions up to 3 ft in diameter and are usually reddish-brown and stink of rotting flesh..

Although parasitic, Rafflesia species do not typically kill their hosts in spite of the drain on resources that they cause. Pollination in Rafflesia has been studied Beaman et al. The flowers are unisexual and single sites usually produce either male or female flowers see exception below. Therefore, in order to have effective pollination reproduction , male flowers must be in close proximity to, and open at the same time as female flowers so that flies or any other insect can transfer pollen.

Furthermore, flower lifespan is only days thereby placing a temporal bottleneck on the process of pollination Beaman et al. To complicate matters further, current population distributions are fragmented due to habitat destruction.