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Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowers. It contains 18 species (including 4 incompletely known species as recognized by Meijer [1997]), all found in South-East Asia, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra and Kalimantan, and the Philippines. The flowers have no leaves and hardly any stem, just a huge speckled 5-petaled flower with a diameter up to one meter, and weighting up to 10 kilogram. The flower smells like rotting meat, hence its local name translates to corpse flower. It is parasitic on a vine, spreading its roots inside the vine. The fruit is eaten by tree shrews.

The species Rafflesia arnoldi is the world's largest single flower. It was discovered in the Indonesian rain forest by Sir Thomas Stamford RafflesSir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles ( 26 July 1781 5 July 1826) was the founder of the city (now country) of Singapore, and is one of the best-known of the many Britons who created the largest empire the world has ever seen. Little is known of Raffles' pa and Dr. Joseph Arnold in 18181818 is a common year starting on Thursday. Events February 12 Chile gains its independence from Spain March 11 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is published March 22 Easter Sunday falls on its earliest possible date. The next time Easter will fall this early:.

The world's largest inflorescenceAn inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers on a branch of a plant. In botany, the term refers to the way individual flowers are arranged on the axis (floral stem). An inflorescence is said to be determinate if the number of flowers cannot increase is borne by Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum); its individual flowers are arranged in a spadixIn botany, a spadix (pl. spadices is a type of spike: an inflorescence with small flowers crowded on a thickened, fleshy axis. The term is applied to certain monocotyledons, especially members of the Family Araceae. In these flower heads there is typicall.