Conservationists in Sumatra, Indonesia, have just discovered the largest single blooming flower ever recorded, and it stinks. The 3.6 ft (111 cm) record-breaking flower was a specimen of Rafflesia tuan-mudae, and it’s dubbed the corpse flower for the rotting-meat smell it emits when it’s blooming. The previous largest stinky flower ever recorded, Rafflesia arnoldii, was also found in Sumatra, with 3.5 ft (107cm) in size.
Rafflesia is a giant flower with no leaves, stems, or proper roots. It doesn’t photosynthesize like most plants. Instead, it sucks the food and water out of a tropical grapevine called tetrastigma, using long, thin strands that look like fungal cells. So, the corpse flower is a parasite species. Another unusual non-photosynthetic plant is the fungi-fed Thai flower Thismia daemona. Once the bud takes root, it grows for around nine months before bursting out into a giant, smelly orange flower. The bulb stays blooming for about a week, attracting lots of pollinating flies with its deathly rotting stench. Additionally, for reasons unclear, the corpse flower steals some of the tetrastigma’s DNA, using it for its genetic code.
This large, stinky flower is critically endangered due to deforestation and loss of habitat. This frightens conservationists because, until recently, it seemed impossible to cultivate Rafflesia.
People from New York may know this stinky flower. In 2016, in the New York Botanical Garden, there was a corpse flower that finally bloomed after an excruciating 10-year growth period. This species of parasitic flower is known as Amorphophallus titanium. The species can grow between 6 and 12 feet tall before blooming. When the flower finally does bloom, it will only open for around 24-36 hours before closing again.
