Rafflesia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Rafflesia |
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Rafflesia
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Rafflesia is a genus of flowering plants. They are found in southeastern Asia, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Thailand and the Philippines. They are the biggest single flowers in the world. In one species the flowers can be over a meter (three feet) across.
The flowers smell like a dead animal, which attracts flies. The flies, which normally lay their eggs on rotten flesh, pollinate the Rafflesia when they get inside.
Rafflesia is a parasite, and does not use chlorophyll. The plant has no stem, leaves or true roots. It lives inside vines of the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae). It spreads its absorptive organ, the haustorium, inside the tissue of the vine. The only part of the plant that can be seen outside the host vine is the flower.
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Ecology
Species of Rafflesia are all thought to be holoparasites of lianas of the genus Tetrastigma, vines which belong to the Vitaceae, the family of the grape vines. They are thus, in a way, hyperparasites, because Tetrastigma are themselves, in a way, structural parasites of the trees they use to climb up to the light. Rafflesia appear to be species-specific, with each Rafflesia species naturally only growing on one to three species of Tetrastigma. Of the 57 known species of Tetrastigma, only ten are known to be host plants. Of the 30 odd species of Rafflesia, the host plants are only known from about half of the species. A certain species of Tetrastigma is very popular among Rafflesia: T. tuberculatum is a host plant for at least 15 species, and only two Philippine species are not known to infect it. T. papillosum and T. diepenhorstii both host at least two species. The flowers may bud from different locations; R. cantleyi flowers from the vine some two meters from the ground, whereas R. zollingeriana always buds out of the roots and appears out of the ground.
The gender ratio may be skewed. In R. lobata there are approximately nine male flowers for every female flower. Rarely are there flowers of both sexes at one location to ensure pollination and thus sexual reproduction. This may not matter: female flowers usually form fruit anyway and may thus be agamospermous. Flowering is relatively constant, and sites may continue to flower for decades.
In Rafflesia arnoldii the flowers are visited by the flies Drosophila colorata, Chrysomya megacephala and Sarcophaga haemorrhoidalis. Black ants of the genus Euprenolepis may feed on the developing flower buds, perhaps killing them. Mammals which are known to eat the flowers are the Javan treeshrew Tupaia javanica and the porcupine Hystrix javanica. Mammals which have been recorded destroying the buds or flowers, often simply by stepping on and crushing them, are: pigs (Sus scrofa), wild cats (Felis bengalensis), rusa (Cervus timorensis), muntjak (Muntiacus muntjak) and banteng (Bos javanicus).
Uses
In Thailand the buds and flowers of R. kerrii are considered a delicacy. They are also harvested for herbalism, a concoction is believed to help for fever or backache. In the Philippines the plants are also used in folk herbalism, but the flowers are also fed to swine as fodder. On Java the buds of R. zollingeriana are harvested and dried for use in jamu, the ancient traditional herbalism of the island.
These plants also have some economic use in attracting ecotourists.
Research in Malaysia and Indonesia has made it possible to propagate the species for use in horticulture, with the famous Bogor Botanical Garden growing the first plants in the 1850s using grafts of infected vines. The Malaysian biologist Jamili Nais was the first to propagate the plants using the seeds around the year 2000.
Images for kids
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Replica Rafflesia displayed in Philippine National Museum
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Rafflesia keithii bloom, approximately 80 cm in diameter near Taman Nasional Rafflesia Bengkulu, Indonesia
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Rafflesia kerrii flower near Langkat, Indonesia
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Three Rafflesia pricei growing in close proximity near Mount Kinabalu, Borneo
See also
In Spanish: Rafflesia para niños
