rafflesia flowers

Rafflesia are many known people are kind arnoldii rafflesia. This species grows only in the southern Sumatran forests, especially Bengkulu. One of the most nice and easy to find arnoldii rafflesia flower is in the woods along the Bengkulu-Curup after Kepahyang. In Bengkulu alone, rafflesia flower has been used as the main motif batik besurek (typical batik Bengkulu) since long.

The main feature that distinguishes the rafflesia flower is shaped carcasses lay wide (not high) and red. When in bloom, the flowers can reach a diameter of about 1 meter high and 50 cm. Rafflesia flower has no roots, stems, and leaves. The flowers have 5 crowns. At the base of the barrel-shaped flowers are pollen flowers or buds, depending on the sex of flowers. presence of pistils and stamens are not in the house to make the percentage of assisted fertilization by insects fly is very small, because it is not necessarily two different flowers grow in the same sex in a place nearby. This flower growth period takes up to 9 months, but the time of flowering of only 5-7 days. After that rafflesia will wither and die.

Rafflesia is a parasitic plant obligate the vines (lianas) tetrasigma and stay inside the rope-like roots. Until now Rafflesia never managed to breed outside their natural habitat and if the roots of its host tree or dead, Raflesia will also die. Therefore Raflesia require primary forest habitat to survive.

Little information, for 200an year plants of the genus classified Rafflesiaceae difficult because the characteristics of the body that are not public. Based on the research of DNA by the botanist at Harvard University recently, rafflesia incorporated into the family Euphorbiaceae, a family with rubber trees and cassava. But it is still not well publicized.