The king flower is as large as a lotus leaf. It is famous for its huge smell and has the reputation of being the king of flowers in the world.

Dawanhua (the largest flower in the world)

Rafflesia is a general name of 20 species of succulent parasitic herbs in the family Magnoliaceae. Fleshy, parasitic herbs, parasitic on roots, stems, or branches of plants, without chlorophyll; nutrient-absorbing organs degenerate into mycelium and invade host tissues. Leaves reduced to scales or absent. Flowers usually solitary, actinomorphic, unisexual, dioecious, perianth connate. Stamens numerous to 5, without filaments; pistil consists of several connate carpels; ovules extremely numerous, born on parietal placenta, integument 1-2 layers; style 1 or absent, stigma discoid, capitate or multilobed. The fruit is a berry; the seed is small, the seed coat is hard, and there is endosperm.

From Malaysia, Indonesia, Java, Sumatra and other tropical rain forests. Is the plant with the largest flowers in the world. Dawanhua is locally called Bungapatma, which means "lotus leaf-sized flower". It is famous for its huge and smelly flowers and is known as the "king of flowers of the world". It is a saprophytic plant.

The beginning and end of discovery

Named after Sir Stamford Raffles in the British colony, Sir Stamford Raffles and his friend Dr. James Arnold discovered the largest species in Manna in 1818. The species name "arnoldii" is in honor of the British naturalist Joseph Arnold, the leader of the scientific expedition that discovered the plant.

The first botanist to discover the specimen of the king flower was the French explorer Louis Auguste Deschamps (1765-1842). He is a member of a French scientific expedition. During his expedition to the Asia-Pacific region, he spent three years in Java. In 1797, he collected a specimen now known as Rafflesia horsfieldii. On his return voyage in 1798, his ship was sent to England, during the Anglo-French War, and all his papers and notes were confiscated. In his lifetime, the inspector did not see the dawn that the species had been confirmed by the plant world, and it was not until 1954 that the materials were rediscovered in the British Museum of Natural History.

In 1818, British botanist Joseph Joseph Arnold (1782-1818) and statesman Sir Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781-1826, founder of modern Singapore) collected specimens of another species-the Arnold King Flower (Rafflesiaarnoldii) growing in Sumatra. Joseph Arnold died shortly after it was brought back by Malayan servants. Ms. Raffles has been collecting this specimen, and in order to fulfill Arnold's last wish, she sent drawings of the shape and color of the plant to Joseph Banks for preservation. Later transferred by banker Robert Brown (1773-1858) to the British Museum, materials were studied by Franz Bauer, a plant artist who lived here (1758-1840).

William Jack (1795-1822), Arnold's successor in Sumatra, knew Deschamps and noticed that the names of the newly discovered genera were different from the facts. He drafted a note to ensure the credibility of British botanists.

The type species of Rafflesia arnoldii, commonly known as Arnold King Flower, was supposed to be named after Stanford Bingley Raffles, the first to describe the species, but eventually it was named after British botanist Joseph Arnold. This was decided by the meeting of the Linnai Society held in London in June 1820. The scientific name was published in a report on the annals of philosophy published in September that year.

Morphological characteristics

Dawanhua is a fleshy parasitic herb rather than a real cannibal flower. Their main axis is very short, there are no leaves and underground stems, and the nutrient-absorbing organs degenerate into mycelium, invading the host tissue, so the whole flower is all of it. Almost all the nutrients absorbed from the host supply the growth of the flower, which can reach 0.9144 meters in diameter, with a record high of 1.4m. The pedestal of Dawanhua is developed from the xylem of the host and is shaped like a jar.

Fleshy, parasitic herbs, parasitic on roots, stems, or branches of plants, without chlorophyll; leaves reduced to scales or absent. Flowers are usually solitary, actinomorphic, unisexual, dioecious, bisexual, very large (the world's largest flower: Rafflesia arnoldii R. Br. It is about 1 meter in diameter and weighs 7.5 kilograms and is produced in Sumatra. ), perianth connate, lobes 4-10 or absent, sparsely separated; male flowers: stamens numerous to 5, without filaments, 1-3 rings on core column, or United in bisexual flowers, anthers 2-loculed, longitudinally lobed or apical foramen dehiscent, anthers sometimes confluent, pollen often sticky, single or into tetrads Female flowers: pistil consists of 8-6-4 connate carpels, ovary inferior, semi-inferior or superior, 1-loculed or placenta protruding near the middle to form many irregular cavities; ovules extremely numerous, born on lateral membrane placenta, integument 1-2 layers; style 1 or absent, stigma discoid, capitate or multifid. The fruit is a berry; the seed is small, the seed coat is hard, and there is endosperm.

The filamentous bud of the seed can gradually spread in the stem bark without harming the host, until a year and a half later, the seed absorbs enough energy, expands in volume, and germinates about 6 mm through the seed coat. After several months of slow growth, the buds gradually changed from the size of ping-pong balls to the size of kale. After a month, the bud will open slowly, and it will take two days and two nights to fully bloom. The blooming king flower is gorgeous and colorful, the whole Corolla is bright red, there are a little white spots on it, the Corolla is 50-90 cm, 5 succulent petals are thick and tough, each petal is about 5 cm thick and 30 cm wide, and the total weight of the petals can be as high as 10 kg. There is a large honey trough with a round mouth in the middle of the flower, which is quite large and can hold 5-7 kilograms of water.

Plants are often parasitic on the roots of trailing stems or lower climbing stems of the grape family under the deciduous layer of the tropical rain forest.

Habitat of producing area

Dawanhua grows in tropical rain forests at an altitude of 500-700 meters above sea level.

Growth habit

Because there are no four seasons in the growing place of the king flower, it will sprout at any time of the year, and the most important growing season is from May to October every year. When it first appeared on the ground, it was about the size of a ping-pong ball. after months of slow growth, the bud changed from the size of a ping-pong ball to the size of cabbage, and then five fleshy petals slowly opened. It has been two days and two nights since the flowers were in full bloom. It is hard to believe that the huge flowers managed to come out of the king flower can only last for 4-5 days, and during these 4-5 days, the flowers will constantly release a strange stench, as bad as feces. Butterflies and bees are not willing to pay attention to it, and large animals will naturally avoid it and let some odorous insects pollinate it. When the petals wither, they turn into a pile of rotten black material, and soon the fruit ripens, with many tiny seeds hidden in it, ready to fall into the ground to find a suitable place to germinate.

The king flower has only one flower in its life, and the flowering period is only 4 days. The bud has a fragrance at the beginning of its bloom, and then it gives off a pungent rotten smell, hence the synonym of Corpse Flower. The stench of pollen attracts carrion eaters such as flies to pollinate it, and squirrels are also interested in pollen, often licking from one anther to another. On the 4th day of flowering, the petals of Dawanghua gradually blackened and withered, turning into a pool of sticky black substance within a few weeks. The successfully pollinated female flower will gradually form a semi-rotten fruit in the following 7 months. The amazing flowers bear rotten fruit, which is really a spectacle of the plant world. The fruit is globose, about 15 cm in diameter, with woody, brown epidermis, milky white, lipid-rich pulp under the pericarp, and thousands of reddish brown miniature seeds.

Reproduction method

Although the flower of Dawanghua is very large, its seeds are so small and sticky that they are almost indistinguishable to the naked eye. Then, there is still considerable controversy in the scientific community about exactly how the seeds of the king flower are spread. Some scholars believe that "seeds are propagated by deer, wild boars and other plants after stepping into plants with damaged stem bark."

Species research

With regard to the species division of Rafflesia (also known as "Dahuahua"), Malaysian scholars claim that a new species of the genus Dawang may have been discovered. The genus is famous for its large flowers and smelly smell. Forestry officials in the eastern province of Terengganu, Malaysia, say they have found a special plant of the genus Magnolia, whose petals look like a known species and the internal shape of the flowers like another.

Forestry official Roslee Jamaludin believes that this could be a new species or a variety, or a variant. Everyone is excited about this discovery, and no species with the same characteristics have been found after a study of known plants of the genus Magnolia. Of course, its characteristics need to be observed more carefully before it is determined to be a new species.

Gamarudin said that the exact location where the large flower plant was found could not be made public, and it was found climbing on a tall tree. What is even more peculiar is that it has no stems or leaves, it grows on a kind of vine, and the whole flower is all of its body. Almost all the nutrients absorbed by the king flower from the lianas supply the growth of the flowers.

According to reports, the genus is famous for its huge flowers and smelly smell. Although large flowers and plants are rare, they have been found in several countries in Southeast Asia. Its flowers are huge, up to 1 meter and weigh 10 kilograms, making it one of the largest flowers in the world. Harvard University botanist Charles Davis and his colleagues reported in the online edition of the journal Science that they used the latest DNA molecular marker technology to compare the plant with a series of plants and found that it should belong to Euphorbiaceae in the plant genealogy. Davis said that the large flowers, which live in the lower plants of the rainforests of Southeast Asia, are generally parasitic on the grapevine family. The giant flowers are blood-red and give off a rotten smell, which can be used to attract certain flies to pollinate it. General botanists classify plants with similar characteristics into the same family, but the flowers of large flowers are unusually large, which is rare in flowering plants, plus it is a parasitic plant without the typical structure of plants such as leaves and stems, and because of parasitism, scientists have not known which family it belongs to because of the genetic characteristics of many grapevines. The new study surprised them that the royal flower should belong to the Euphorbiaceae, because the flowers of the Euphorbiaceae are only a few percent the size of the Euphorbiaceae, while Irish primrose, poinsettia and castor all belong to the Euphorbiaceae. It is very puzzling that the flowers are so different in size but belong to the same category. The next step is to further study the big flowers and plants, such as analyzing why its flowers are so big and how they evolved.

Population status

Because of the little-known breeding methods of Dawanhua, it can only rely on natural transmission. In addition, the place where the king flower grows is regarded as fertile land and used for other uses; without good protection, the king flower gradually decreases.

As a result of human logging, the development of plantations and other activities, a large area of local rainforest is rapidly decreasing. There is no suitable environment to cause the king flower to decline year by year, coupled with the local legend that the king flower has medicinal value and has the effect of tonifying the kidney and strengthening yang. The extract processed by flower bud extract is a good medicine for women when giving birth. The excessive mining of the local people has put Dawanhua in serious danger of extinction.

The Indonesian government is also working to organize botanists to search for and protect the plant. In 1984, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources listed Dawanhua as "the most seriously threatened endangered plant in the world", drawing the attention of the world public to and begin to protect this largest and most peculiar flower in the world. In 1997, the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Act was enacted, and the king flower is a protected plant. In 2002, the relevant authorities found that 44-83% of the royal flowers were outside the protection of the environment, so they sent personnel to find and supervise them, and hoped that the environment in which they grew would not be damaged in the future.

Protection level

The magnificent royal flower (Rafflesia magnifica) is listed in the World Conservation Union (IUCN) 2013 Red list of Endangered species ver 3.1-extremely endangered (CR).