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Boy with Rafflesia.
© Gerhard Winter, 1998 |
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Four Feet of Flower
The biggest flower in the world, which has been measured at four feet across, grows only in the Indonesian rain forest.
How It Got It's Name
In May 1818, Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of the Singapore Botanic Garden, made an expedition to the little-charted Sumatran Pasemah highlands with Lady Sophia and Dr. Joseph Arnold, a botanist. Even for as experienced a traveler as Raffles this was an arduous undertaking across mountain ranges up to 5,000 feet high. On the journey they discovered the gigantic parasitic plant known to the natives as the devil's betel box which grows from the lower stems and roots of cissus vines. Its firm, fleshy petals, not less than half an inch thick, measured rather more than a yard across. The blossom was estimated to contain a gallon and a half of water and weigh fifteen pounds.
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