Daria Discovery

Borneo Rafflesia Arnoldi The rafflesia queen of parasite is one of the world's rarest fascinating flowers. It has no root, stem, branch or leaf ...like a fungi. It largest parasitic plant, It attaches itself to a host plant to obtain water and nutrients. The plant produces no leaves, stems or roots and does not contain chlorophyll and are therefore incapable of photosynthesis. It is an endoparasite of vines spreading its roots inside the tissue of the vine to obtain water and nutrients. It is totally dependant upon a vine called Tetrastigma. To reproduce, a rafflesia begins to smell like rotting meat near the end of its life cycle.  The smell attracts flies which inadvertently carry pollen to other rafflesia flowers.  To make matters more difficult, rafflesia flowers are unisex and are usually found within range of the same sex.  Insects not only have to carry pollen to another rafflesia, they must take it to the opposite sex and do so within ...