What Type of Plant Is Rafflesia?

What Are Rafflesia?

• There are 27 members of the Rafflesia genus. Scientists were long baffled by these organisms, which behave like plants in some ways and more like fungi in others. Unlike most other plants, Rafflesia have no stems, roots or leaves and they don't employ photosynthesis. To complicate matters further, these thread-like organisms spend most of their lives as parasites inside of a specific species of host vine, into which the rafflesia actually transfers some of its own genetic material. However, they do produce flowers and contain choloroplast, like most other plants. A 2004 genetic study from Western Michigan University and a 2007 study from Harvard University concluded that rafflesia are Malpighiales, part of the Euphorbiaceae or spurge family of flowering plants that also includes poinsettias, violets and yucca roots.

Characteristics

• Rafflesias are perhaps best known for their massive flowers, which can grow up to 3 feet across and weigh as much as 15 pounds. The species Rafflesia arnoldii produces the largest flowers in the world. In a neat evolutionary trick, these reddish-brown, white-spotted flowers smell like rotting meat, a characteristic that attracts a species of fly that unknowingly pollinates other rafflesia flowers as they flit fruitlessly from huge flower to huge flower, looking for the source of that tantalizing odor. Rafflesia flowers only live for a few days before decomposing.

Habitat

• Rafflesia grow only in a few remote, forested regions of southeast Asia, many of which have been devastated due to logging. Unlike most parasitic plants, which often cause economic damage due to host death, these odd plants have an unintended benefit in ecotourism. Many interested would-be botanists travel to areas in Malaysia, the Philippines, Borneo, Java and Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia to catch a glimpse of the flowers. The flower is the official state flower of Indonesia as well as two provinces in Thailand and Malaysia.

Challenges to Study

• These fascinating plants are difficult to study. Their natural habitats are remote and disappearing quickly. When in parasitic form, their bodies twist and twine through their host vine's body. They are only visible to the naked eye when they bud as flowers and erupt from their host's body. Flowers are relatively rare; only one or two buds out of ten actually flower, and those take up to a year to develop. Once rafflesias flower, they only live for a few days, making them difficult to dissect and preserve.