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Rafflesia panchoana
Rafflesia panchoana (syn. R. manillana, R. lagascae), just like all members of its family Rafflesiaceae, is a holoparasitic plant that has no visible stem, leaves and roots. It lives completely inside its host pant (Tetrastigma sp.), with its visible parts being the flower, fruit and seeds only. R. panchoana also possesses one of the smallest flowers in its genus.
We found this one in the forest of Mt. Makiling, Philippines.
It smells exactly like a putrefying rat. Although one must get close to the flower to smell it.
11 Comments
Congratulations Jhan-Curt Fernández, your spotting won Second Place in our 2019 Best Wildlife Photo Competition - Plants category!
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Congratulations ! This must be an amazing thing to behold..
Beautiful specimen.
For anyone interested here's a link to download the paper with the original species description: https://www.researchgate.net/publication...
Beautiful shot Jhan-Curt. Just reading a little from the reference you provided. Thanks so much for sharing and congratulations on the SOTD.
Congrats on your sotd.
Congratulations Jhan-Curt, your Rafflesia has been chosen to illustrate #EarthDay2019:
"Today is the 49th edition of #EarthDay! We’ve chosen to mark the day with this magnificent Rafflesia panchoana as our Spotting of the Day. Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants found in Southeast Asia, with about 28 known species and new species still described recently. Rafflesia panchoana was described in 2007 from Mt. Makiling on the island of Luzon (Philippines), an area rich in endemic species. Recent estimates suggest that only 14% of all living species on Earth have so far been discovered. Worryingly, the current rate of species extinction signifies that many species may disappear before being catalogued and contributing to our understanding of the natural world, not to mention that biodiversity is essential in maintaining healthy ecosystems. In this context Earth Day 2019 comes with the most appropriate special theme: Protect our Species.
Find out more about the Protect our Species campaign and other initiatives by the Earth Day Network: https://buff.ly/2HoPAUC "
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Thank you for your comments! Yes, they are truly amazing plants.
Amazing!
Wow fantastic spotting! This must be one of the newly described species. I've heard many species have been discovered all over The Philippines.
Amazing spotting, Jhan-Curt!