It was a few years back that we made our trip to Kota Kinabalu.
As part of the trip, we went to have a look at the world’s largest flower on the lower slopes of Mount Kinabalu. This flower is known as Rafflesia – a flower which can be as large as 39 inches in diameter and weigh up to 22 lb. The plant has no stems, leaves or true roots. It is an holoparasite of vines in the genus Tetrastigma , spreading its absorptive organ.
The bud of the Malaysian version of the flower remains dormant for 6 to 9 months and then suddenly burst out at night to become a flower, but then it start to decompose only after 2-3 days later.
Actually, we paid the local villager who kept the flower an “entrance fee” to see the flower. The flower has a smell similar to rotting flesh and for that reason it is called a “corpse flower” by the local people. This is the biggest stinky flower we have ever seen in our life.
The flower is just out of scale with the rest of the plants in the vicinity!
retireediary 