Talk:Rafflesia

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Isn't the "Corpse Flower" actually the titan arum? I'm just confused, because I know both smell highly of rotting meat, but I was pretty sure only the titan arum was considered "The Corpse Flower"... 24.67.253.203 11:54, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Somebody who knows how should make this disambiguate to Amorphophallus_titanum as well, which is another flower that stinks like rotten meat and have the name Corpse Flower

You're correct, Amorphophallus titanum is widely known (especially in the popular press) as "corpse flower". MrDarwin 12:52, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] rafflesia, titan arum

I believe the titan arum is also called "dead horse arum"

Sorry, I was wrong about titan arum being called "dead horse arum". It is the Helicodiceros muscivorus that is called so. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.180.125.242 (talk • contribs).

What is the origin of the name? Is it named for the thief, or the hotel, or for someone else? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.26.98.90 (talk • contribs).

Quote from article: "and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles." andy 23:59, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] big news, World's largest flower evolved from family of much tinier blooms

The plant with the world's largest flower -- typically a full meter across, with a bud the size of a basketball -- evolved from a family of plants whose blossoms are nearly all tiny, botanists write this week in the journal Science. Their genetic analysis of rafflesia reveals that it is closely related to a family that includes poinsettias, the trees that produce natural rubber, castor oil plants, and the tropical root crop cassava. --Meika 20:43, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

As the link above doesn't work for me, here's the actual abstract of that article: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/101/3/787?ijkey=b831816f017b346a02ca946d8bec3bff87ef686c&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha andy 20:52, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

First link doesn't work, second link is to a different paper published in 2004; try a Google News search to find recent news stories about it. MrDarwin 21:04, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I've fixed the first link. Mgiganteus1 21:24, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I also wondered about the year, reading this website now it seems like the new part is the result that the nearest family is Euphorbiaceae. I just reworded that part in the article already and added the citation of the earlier paper. Anyone having the full citation of this one? andy 21:35, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Done - however actually this maybe belongs into the article on the family Rafflesiaceae. andy 21:46, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Let's wait until somebody can actually check the original paper (rather than secondary sources--anybody else notice that the CNN article had a photo of Amorphophallus titanum labeled as Rafflesia?) before making major changes to the article. While these stories are making a big deal out of Rafflesia having huge flowers and Euphorbiaceae having tiny ones, in fact several of the genera of Rafflesiaceae have much smaller flowers than Rafflesia itself, and some genera of Euphorbiaceae have relatively normal-sized flowers. MrDarwin 01:22, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I checked the paper and added some material from it, including a version of the tree. A more detailed version is on the Rafflesiaceae page, but it's probably worth having something here as well. KarlM 08:33, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a little succulent which produces similar (though much smaller) flowers, rotten smell and all (though fishy rather than meaty). I've seen them growing in Spain. Can anyone identify it? Drutt 21:38, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Found it, Stapelia lepida. Drutt 10:46, 23 March 2007 (UTC)