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World's Largest Flower Mystery Solved

Posted by timothy on from the a-bit-of-it-anyhow dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The world's largest flower, called Rafflesia, can have a diameter up to one meter and can weigh up to 10 kilograms. It also smells like rotting flesh. Discovery News tells us that its genetic roots have been uncovered and that this plant that smells so bad is related to delicate flowers such as poinsettias or violets. The researchers analyzed the Rafflesia's mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which corresponds to chloroplast DNA. The mtDNA studies revealed that the large, stinky flower is related to more normal-sized, pleasantly fragrant posies, like passionflowers, and other members of the order Malpighiales. This overview contains more details and references. It also includes two photographs revealing the size of the rafflesia when held by a man, as well as details of the flower itself."

32 comments

  1. Damn, super cool. by torpor · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... now those mocorhorchlorian thingies, are they the 'bad' kind of force, or the 'good' kind of force in this plant?

    I'd go for bad, since its a stinker. Darth Rafflesia, anyone?

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
    1. Re:Damn, super cool. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      0 beggining mod?

      you have a uid of 458, yet you also have a beg mod of 0. crazy

  2. Mitochondrial? by Mish · · Score: 0, Troll

    "The researchers analyzed the Rafflesia's mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)"

    So let me get this straight, this plant is force sensative?

  3. Darn Star Wars... by FooAtWFU · · Score: 2, Informative

    How many people are going to confuse and/or joke about mitochondria versus midichlorians? Too many. =b

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    1. Re:Darn Star Wars... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      How many people are going to confuse and/or joke about mitochondria versus midichlorians?

      One. And I agree that's too many.

    2. Re:Darn Star Wars... by ArghBlarg · · Score: 1

      What, you mean the ability to use cool electronic music gear properly? I thought that's what Midichlorians were for... :-p

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      ERROR 144 - REBOOT ?
    3. Re:Darn Star Wars... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now i'm confused. So this plant has some merovinigians inside it, and this is the same thing that darth vader has.???

  4. Too see one by a5cii · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you would like to see one of these plants there is One in the Winter Gardens, Aberdeen, Scotland. It blooms about once every 9 years.

  5. I think this proves... by robdeadtech · · Score: 1

    that life imitates The Simpsons

    --
    Heil Sig! -Rob
    1. Re:I think this proves... by Thuktun · · Score: 1
      that life imitates The Simpsons

      ...or that the writers are knowledgeable and like making references. It's not like this plant just sprung into existance recently.

  6. Amorphophallus Titanum by Muad'Dave · · Score: 2, Informative

    What about this monster?

    What a name - it means, roughly, "Giant shapeless phallus". Could this describe Darl, too?

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
    1. Re:Amorphophallus Titanum by macdaddy · · Score: 1

      LOL. Leave it to one of us band geeks to be caught in a photo with an enormous flower. LOL. All we need now is an enormous keg and some growing lights and we'd have a kick ass party. I'm a band geek so I'm allowed to poke fun of my own kind. ;-)

    2. Re:Amorphophallus Titanum by lawpoop · · Score: 1
      "Shapeless Phallus"

      Isn't that an oxymoron? I thought phallus was a term denoting shape only. Or is an anatomical term in the original Latin?

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    3. Re:Amorphophallus Titanum by corbettw · · Score: 1

      And this one time, at band camp, I saw a shapeless phallus!

      Yeah, that fits.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    4. Re:Amorphophallus Titanum by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      Isn't that one of those magic alloys from Star Trek?

  7. Too much of a good thing... by sporktoast · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The relationship between stinky smells and pleasing ones is an interesting one. Many of the most unpleasant and gut-wrenching odors are not really much more than very intense concentrations of smells that are actually quite pleasant in smaller doses. Or actually, overly-powerful mixtures of several otherwise pleasing odors.

    The smell of soft Ambergris is enough to make most people vomit, and yet it has been a valuable ingredient for perfume (in very small amounts, after being dissolved in alcohol) for centuries.

    Think of other passionflowers as being something like Pachelbel's Canon and gigue in D and Rafflesia as being more like, lets say Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, played at an extreme volume. (I actually enjoy MMM , though truth be told, only about once a year or so.)

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    1. Re:Too much of a good thing... by cblack · · Score: 2, Informative

      By the time Ambegris is ready to be used in perfume, it has been floating around in the ocean for ~10 years. By this time, the odor would certainly not make one vomit and may even be considered pleasant.
      Also, I wanted to mention that some ingredients used in perfumery are not present to provide olfactory enjoyment. For example, civit and castor oils are used as a fixitive in the base of the perfume to preserve the natural floral essences. Ambergris also serves this purpose, but happens to add to the olfactory experience as well.
      Only the oldest fragrance houses still use these methods. Most companies have replaced the use of animal ingredients with synthetics.

    2. Re:Too much of a good thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      The relationship between stinky smells and pleasing ones is an interesting one. Many of the most unpleasant and gut-wrenching odors are not really much more than very intense concentrations of smells that are actually quite pleasant in smaller doses. Or actually, overly-powerful mixtures of several otherwise pleasing odors.

      like pussy?

    3. Re:Too much of a good thing... by BadTuna · · Score: 1

      So. This explains why my socks smell like strawberries when I listen to say, Vivaldis' "Four Seasons". But, smell like a Rafflesia when I listen to say, Joe Satrianis' "Surfing With the Alien"? Just wondering!

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  8. That Smell by ajax0187 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd like to know how they found someone to get that close to the thing. You're supposed to be able to smell those flowers from a couple hundred feet away, and even then they can make people with sensitive stomachs retch. The guys who study these things must have either cast-iron stomachs or blown their sinuses out. Or both.

    --
    "By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth." - George Carlin
    1. Re:That Smell by sporktoast · · Score: 1


      Did anyone else see the watermark in the photo of the man squatting near the flower and think at first it was like those wafting vapors that cartoons use to show that something stinks?
      Maybe it's just me...

      --
      In a related story, the IRS has recently ruled that the cost of Windows upgrades can NOT be deducted as a gambling loss.
    2. Re:That Smell by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I'd guess that most people are blocking their nose somehow. As long as I don't forget to pay attention, I can simply avoid breathing through my nose, ostensibly by flexing some muscle in the roof of my mouth. This won't stop some odor from wafting into my nostrils, but it usually is sufficient to stop me from smelling basically any foul odor from rotting household pet to swamp ass.

      --
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    3. Re:That Smell by Dolohov · · Score: 1

      My guess would be that the prudent scientist would wait until after it finishes blooming and collect the DNA samples then. I can't account for the sinuses of the guy in the picture.

  9. Perfect Bouquet by MissMarvel · · Score: 1

    Shame these don't grow locally. There are some choice people to whom I would love to send a bouquet.

  10. Flesh eater? by telax · · Score: 1

    A friend of main claimed it's a meat eating thingy, and that's the reason it smells so bad(to get some flys for dinner)? Is it? Couldn't see anything like that in those links.

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    telax - Just another vim and c hacker.
    1. Re:Flesh eater? by Urkki · · Score: 1

      I don't think so. It's "flowers and bees" thing, except substitue "bees" with "carrion flies"...

    2. Re:Flesh eater? by jocko · · Score: 1

      Flowers that give off the smell of rotten meat or other disgusting things are almost always pollinated by flies, which are attracted to that smell. So there is a very good reason for this smell that, to humans, is repulsive. In nature, there is usually a good reason for most everything.

    3. Re:Flesh eater? by the_m0nitor · · Score: 1

      Plants like these are considered carnivous. There are many plants that have similar advantageous, however disgusting, abilities. The venus fly-trap, another carnivorous plant, also produced a similar smell, and has a pink tinge to the inside of it's "mouthes." This effect is used to attract animals that usually eat carrion for sustinence. When the pray is trapped, via the mousetrap-like "mouthes", digestive enzymes are used to break down the potential energy source. Some other examples of carnivorous plants are "The Pitcher Plant", "Bullwort", and "StickyDew" plants.

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      Cognito Ergo Sum
  11. i would rather have by theMerovingian · · Score: 1

    a giant head of lettuce than a rotting-flesh-flower.

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    "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
  12. News update by corvi42 · · Score: 1

    Researchers released an update to this story. It turns out further analysis of the mitochondrial DNA has revealed that the flower is actually related to dead people. The spokesman for the research group "Goths for science", dressed in an unusually black labcoat was quoted as saying: 'These are the blossoms of the damned, their sweet aroma reminds us of the futility and inevitability of our fate. Embrace it and you may be spared eternal torment. Struggle against it and your soul will be crushed like an insignificant insect in the grip of a venus fly trap FOREVER!' The spokesman then darted back to 'his dark abode', which we learned from university officials is a plant conservatory in a converted broom closet in the basement. One shocked and terrified researcher from the psychology lab down the hall was quoted as saying "I can smell dead people, I smell them all the time..."

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  13. Next challenge.... by Hamster+Lover · · Score: 1

    The world's largest fruit mystery -- Richard Simmons. Wonder what mtDNA will reveal.

  14. It wasn't me! I swear!!! by Lobsang · · Score: 1

    It was the Rafflesia...