Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Did you know?

Alright, so I am bit of a morbid person, shocker I know!

I like cemeteries, go hunting for ghosts and will be starting school to be a mortician.

So why not share the "Corpse Flower" with you? Some of you may already know about this loverly plant/flower, however, I am fascinated and want to share.

The "Corpse Flower" or scientific term The Rafflesia arnoldii, is the largest flower in the world.

It is found in the rain forests of Indonesia and can grow to be 3 feet across and weigh up to 15 pounds. It actually lives off of a host plant, so it is parasitic, and has no visible leaves, roots or stems. I would hate to be this plants neighbor, sheesh, what a mooch!



So why "Corpse Flower" you ask? Well, because when it blooms it has the smell of rotting meat and or a dead corpse decomposing. Believe it or not, this smell causes insects to be attracted to the plant, and they pollinate the thing.

Another "Corpse Flower" is the Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan arum. This plant however does not mooch, but it is made of many different flowers. It also has the same smell that draws insect to pollinate it. I really like the color of this one a lot more though.

                                            ~*This is the plant in full bloom*~

As cool as these plants are, both found in Indonesia, I wouldn't want one near my house. They would be cool to go see one day.

4 comments:

Sunshine Morrighan said...

Learned something new two days in a row! Woo Hoo!

murphyfish said...

Hi BeMistified,
I'd heard of the Titan Arum before but not the Corpse Flower, strange how two plants from the same area use the same method of insect attraction. Oh by the way love your blog, can see that I've got a little catching up to do.
Regards,
John

BeMistified said...

John: Thank you! Also thank you for coming by and reading. I think one plant copied the other, IMO. haha!

Unspoken said...

Crazy, rotting meat? No way! I have never heard of a flower smelling like that. But, I would love to go to Indonesia. Wild smelly flowers and all ;).