Holiday Ayo - Because this type of flower is included in a rare plant with a unique shape and emits an extraordinary pungent odor, it's no wonder the presence of this flower can invite tourists to come to visit and be curious to take a closer look.

Well, this flower has become one of the tourist spots that invite not only local but also foreign tourists. This is the Rafflesia flower! And currently, there are 31 types of Rafflesia around the world, 15 of which are in Indonesia and 11 species are in Sumatra. Almost half of the world's Rafflesia species are in the forests of this Sumatran region.

Rafflesia flower is an obligate parasitic plant, which is a plant that completely depends on its host plant for its energy source. It survives by absorbing other plant nutrients. Rafflesia life propagates in the network, in addition, this plant does not have leaves so that there is no photosynthesis process in its growth, nor does it have roots and stems. The only part that can be considered a plant is only the flower part.

Rafflesia plants are spread in several tropical countries, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. In Indonesia, Rafflesia can be found in Bengkulu, precisely in the Kerinci Seblat National Park area. So many types of Rafflesia grow, but the most famous is the type of Rafflesia Arnoldii. This species is one of the endemic plants with giant size.

Also called the giant lotus, this flower is one of the rare large, whose size can reach a diameter of about one meter and weighs 11 kilograms. Not surprisingly, this flower is often referred to as the largest flower in the plant world.

Rafflesia Arnoldii has a characteristic in the form of red leaf petals, where there is a hole in the middle that emits a foul smell. The petals consist of five corollas that surround the part that looks like the mouth of a barrel.

There is a base there is a part like a spiny disk, which contains the stamens or pistils, depending on whether this flower is male or female. The pollinators are flies that are attracted by the stench emitted by the Rafflesia Arnoldii flower. The blooming age of the Rafflesia Arnoldii flower is only about one week, after which this flower will wither and die.

To grow, Rafflesia Arnoldii flowers suck inorganic and organic elements from the Tetrastigma host plant. The beginning of this flower was discovered in 1818 by Thomas Stamford Raffles with research scientist Joseph Arnold. Because it was found both, that's why the name of this flower is a combination of the two of them, namely Rafflesia Arnoldii.

However, the real discoverer of the Rafflesia flower was a French surgeon and researcher named Louis Auguste Deschamps. Deschamps had already explored and researched the flora in the Dutch East Indies in 1791-1794 and found the Rafflesia Patma species. Unfortunately, in 1803, all notes, illustrations, and specimens from his research were confiscated and turned into spoils of war. The world just found out that the inventor of the Rafflesia flower for the first time was Deschamps, in 1954. Meanwhile, Thomas Stamford Raffles discovered another type of Rafflesia flower, namely the type of Rafflesia Arnoldii in Bengkulu. Because of this, Bengkulu is known as the Earth of Rafflesia.

In Bengkulu itself, there are several types of Rafflesia flowers besides Rafflesia Arnoldii, such as Rafflesia Gadutensis Meijer, Rafflesia Bengkulunensis, and Rafflesia Hasselti Suringar. The four types of Rafflesia flowers are distinguished by size, color and there are different spots on the flower petals.

What should be noted is that there are other types of flowers that are often equated with this Rafflesia flower. Well, people are often fooled by the presence of carrion flowers and equated with Rafflesia flowers. Though these are two very different types of flowers. Carrion flowers and Rafflesia are different species, although they both have a rotten smell. The carcass flower or what it is called Amorphophallus titanium has a much different morphology and the flowers are taller, have true leaves and roots, even have root tubers, and are still in the same family as suwek. However, these two flowers do both have a foul smell, and this scent comes out to attract insects such as flies to help pollinate.

Rafflesia flower is a rare flower that grows in the protected forest of Bengkulu. This has become one of Bengkulu's mainstay tourist destinations. It is noted that this rare flower species is preserved, lives naturally in protected forests in Bengkulu, and can be enjoyed to this day. This flora has also become an icon of Bengkulu Province!