The "corpse flower"

The giant five-petaled rafflesia, can weigh in at 22 pounds, and is the world's largest flower.  It takes an incredible fourteen months for the bud to grow, and many of them die before they open.  There is no set bloom schedule; quite frankly, these are strange & uncommon flowers.  It's a big deal here in Sabah when a rafflesia blooms; signs and banners are set out on the side of the road proclaiming this rare event. Our burnt-orange bloom was about 24" in diameter and already 4 days old.  In about 2 or 3 days, it would rot and turn black.  We were told the smell was significantly milder than it had been upon the first day of blooming.  

Rafflesia - note the vine (bottom left)

As an avid gardener, I love horticulture, yet I found the rafflesia grotesque.  Could it be the repugnant smell, like a decaying carcass?  The thick, meaty-looking "petals" with carrion flies swarming around?  Lacking chlorophyll, rafflesias are not capable of photosynthesis.  They are parasitic, but they don't actually kill the Tetrastigma vine they grow on.  The stench they give off attracts mainly flies for pollination purposes.  The rafflesia has no stems, leaves or roots; they truly stretch the definition of what can be considered a flower!  The inner portion resembles the inside of a mushroom cap.  The vine we saw sported quite a few rafflesia buds which ranged in size from a baseball to a cantaloupe.