Rafflesia arnoldii - the "meat flower"

We had to prepare a speech about parasitic plants, in our class, a couple of years ago. I want to share some of the interesting stuff that I learned. It is about a huge flower called Rafflesia arnoldii.

Rafflesia arnoldii is a parasitic flowering plants. It was discovered in the Sumatra Islands in Indonesian. R. arnordii has the largest single flower of any flowering plant in the plant kingdom. This plant has no roots, stems or leaves. The only visible part of the plant is the five-petaled flower. In Rafflesia arnoldii, the flower may be over 40 inches in diameter, and weigh up to 10 kilograms or 22 pounds. A peculiar feature found in this parasitic plant is its smell. The flowers smell like rotting flesh, hence its local name as the “meat flower”, or the “corpse flower”. The odour from the flower attracts insects such as flies and carrion beetles (carrion beetles feed on dead animals)
The name “corpse flower” also refers to another flower discovered in Sumatra island, called the Arum lily. You can read about Arum lily here: http://www.ikolam.com/node/3413