Taking a walk through a forest is a fantastic outdoor activity that’s good for your body and brain. But sometimes you also stumble upon strange things mother Earth has to offer during those walks. Recently, a man who was trekking through a forest in Indonesia stumbled upon a rare corpse flower in the wild.
Rafflesia Arnoldii, the largest flower in the world is known for the overpoweringly stinky odor it emits while mid-bloom. Found in the rainforests of Indonesia, it can grow to be 3 feet across and weigh up to 15 pounds.
The massive flower called Rafflesia Tuan-Mudae is 46 inches (117cm) wide – the biggest of its species ever grown. Rafflesia is the name of a large group of plants all of which smell of rotting flesh to attract flies and carrion beetles.
The plants lives as a parasite on vines, but only blooms for a few days at a time. These flies them swarm to the stench and pollinate the flower in its short lifespan.
When Rafflesia is ready to reproduce, a tiny bud forms outside the root or stem of its host and develops over a period of a year. The cabbage-like head that develops eventually opens to reveal the flower.
