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Rafflesia lagascae is a holoparasitic flowering plant found only in the rainforests of Luzon in the Philippines, where it is the most common Rafflesia species. It lives entirely inside its Tetrastigma vine host and shows only its large buds and flowers, so it is not grown as a garden or houseplant.
Rafflesia lagascae (), named malaboô locally, is a species of flowering plant in the parasitic genus Rafflesia within the family Rafflesiaceae. It is only found growing in the rainforest of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. It is a parasitic plant that grows rather like a fungus, wholly within its host vine, Tetrastigma, and it cannot be seen except when its buds and flowers protrude through the stem or roots of the vine each year. It has no stem, leaves or roots. Plants in the Rafflesia species generally have the nickname "corpse flower" because they attract blowflies seeking carrion.
R. lagascae is the most common Rafflesia species in the Philippines and, compared with other Rafflesia species, it has comparatively small flowers. However, because R.
Rafflesia lagascae, or malaboô in the local Tagalog language, is endemic to the tropical rainforest of the island of Luzon in the Philippines where it is the most common species of Rafflesia. In a series of studies covering 36 sites it grew at elevations of 500–1,000 metres (1,600–3,300 ft) where precipitation is 2,500–3,000 millimetres (100–120 in) per year and where the mean daily temperature is 21–24 °C (70–75 °F) and fairly constant over the seasons. The area where the habitat is considered suitable for the species covers about 32% of Luzon and in Protected Areas about 68.0% is suitable. Such a habitat exists in many areas of southeast Asia but R. lagascae is only found on Luzon island and only in 12 quite limited areas that are widely separated across the island from north to south.
Stinking corpse lily · Rafflesia aurantia · Rafflesia azlanii · Rafflesia baletei · Rafflesia bengkuluensis · Rafflesia borneensis · Rafflesia cantleyi · Rafflesia ciliata · Rafflesia consueloae · Rafflesia gadutensis · Rafflesia hasseltii · Rafflesia keithii
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rafflesia lagascae by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
