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The Biggest Ever Rafflesia Flower Has Been Found In Indonesia
We all know that the Rafflesia is the largest flower in the world.
However, Indonesian conservationists have reportedly spotted the biggest specimen of the largest flower in the world.
Biggest ever found
According to news agency The Jakarta Post, the giant Rafflesia tuan-mudae that was found was at a whopping 111 centimetres (3.6 foot) in diameter.
That's bigger than the previous record of 107 centimetres on a bloom also found in the jungles of West Sumatra several years ago.
“This is the largest Rafflesia tuan-mudae that has ever been documented,” Khairi Ramadhan, section head of the West Sumatra Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) for Conservation Area 1, was quoted as saying.
According to Khairi, the agency had started observing the parasitic plant on 24 December, and it "bloomed perfectly" on 3 January.
If you didn’t know, the Rafflesia flower was named after British colonialist Sir Stamford Raffles, who stumbled upon the plant in Indonesia in the early 19th Century.
Sometimes called the 'corpse flower', the Rafflesia mimics the smell of rotting flesh to attract insects.
The species can be found in several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines and Malaysia.