| General Information |
| Common Name | Corpse Flower |
| Scientific Name | Rafflesia arnoldii |
| Sun Tolerance | Shade |
| Height | up to 1 m (up to 3.3 ft) |
| Spread | up to 1 m (up to 3.3 ft) |
| Growth Rate | Slow |
| Bloom Time | Summer |
| Color | Red |
| Flower Color | Red |
| Type | Fungi |
| Native | Eastern Tropical Asia |
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| Classification |
| Kingdom | Plantae – Plants |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta – Vascular plants |
| Superdivision | Spermatophyta – Seed plants |
| Division | Angiosperms |
| Class | Eudicots |
| Subclass | Eudicotiae |
| Order | Malpighiales |
| Family | Rafflesiaceae |
| Genus | Rafflesia |
| Species | R. arnoldii |
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| Rafflesia arnoldii - Corpse Flower |
Rafflesia arnoldii, common name is Corpse Flower. It is native to Indonesia and it is endemic to the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. It is noted for producing the largest individual flower on earth. It has no leaf, stem, root and it is a nonphotosynthetic plant, these plants live as parasites inside a host plant, a woody vine related to grapes. It has even been proposed that they are not flowering plants at all, it is a fungi. It is one of the three national flowers of Indonesia. It was recognized as a national “rare Flower”. It grows up to 1 m ( 3.3 ft) in diameter and weight up to 11 KG. Its color is reddish-brown.
Rafflesia arnoldii was first found by Louis Auguste Deschamps was a famous explorer of Franch. He was a member of a French scientific expedition to Asia and the Pacific. He found it in 1797 when he was expenditing in Java.
R. arnoldii is very rare and fairly hard to locate. It is especially difficult to locate the flower in forests, as the buds take many months to develop and the flower lasts for just a few days. The flowers are uni-sexual and thus proximity of male and female flowers is vital for successful pollination. These factors make successful pollination a rare event. It can only be seen when it is ready to reproduce. a tiny bud forms outside the root or stem of its host and develops over a period of a year. It looks like a cabbage when the host devoloping. The stigma or stamen are attached to a spiked disk inside the flower. The fruit produced are round lots filled with smooth flesh including many thousands of hard-coated seeds that are eaten and spread by treeshrews. Some environmentalists are developing ways to recreate the species' environment in an effort to stimulate their recovery. This has proved unsuccessful so far. Steps are also being taken to conserve the forests of Sumatra and Borneo.
