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Rafflesia tuan-mudae is a parasitic plant with no leaves, stems or roots of its own, living inside Tetrastigma vines and producing one of the largest flowers in the world. It cannot be grown as a garden or houseplant; it is found only in the wild rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.
Rafflesia tuan-mudae is a member of the Rafflesiaceae family. It lives as a parasite within the Tetrastigma vines. The enormous flowers may reach over 1 m in diameter. The buds normally emerge where the vine is growing along the ground, unlike some of the other Rafflesia species whose buds can emerge from vines hanging in the air.
The flowers can be found emerging from liana-like vines, specifically Tetrastigma rafflesiae and Tetrastigma diepenhorstii. The seeds reach the host plant by an unknown animal vector, penetrate the tissue of the root and grow inside the host tissue for an indefinite period of time before buds develop. The bud develops for nine months, before it becomes a gigantic orange to red flower. It stays in full bloom for just seven days. The main pollinator for this flower are flies. All Rafflesia flowers emit a rotting meat stench attracting pollinators, although the smell of R. tuan-mudae is comparatively mild. However, they are no less effective at attracting these flies, upon whose back pollen is deposited.
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 tuan-mudae 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.
