Rafflesia patma

Rafflesia patma
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Rafflesiaceae
Genus:	Rafflesia
Species:	R. patma
Binomial name
Rafflesia patma Blume[1]
Synonyms
See text

Rafflesia patma is a parasitic plant species of the genus Rafflesia.^[2] It is only known to grow on the Indonesian island of Java, although it may have occurred on Sumatra in the past (and may still occur there). Like other species in its genus, this plant has no leaves, stems, roots or chlorophyll, instead stealing all its nutrition from Tetrastigma lanceolaurium, a rainforest liana.

The anatomy of this plant has devolved into mycelium-like strands of cells infecting the internal vascular system of its host. The species' five-lobed flowers measure 30 to 60 cm across, and stink with the odour of rotting flesh. This stench attracts mostly female carrion flies searching for a place to lay their eggs. When they fly inside the large pot-like structure in the middle of the flower, they find a central column inside, topped with a wart-covered disc-like plate; under the rim of this plate they find a small crevice, into which they crawl believing they have found an opening into the soft parts of a rotting body -instead, the rim is shaped in such a way that, when investigating, their backs are thus smeared with the jelly-like pollen if the Rafflesia flower is male, or it is pressed against a zone of modified stigmas if the flower is female.