What is the largest flower plants on earth? Maybe some of you never heard about it. This kind of flower plants called Rafflesia Arnoldii, one of parasitic flowering plants from Rafflesia genus.
There are about 28 type of Rafllesia, these plants only found in South East Asia.The first Rafflesia Arnoldii is founded in 1818 by Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, a British Governor General for Sumatran Island at that time, with his guide Dr Joseph Arnold.
Rafllesia Arnoldii flowers diameter may reach around 100 cm or 4 ft, and weighing up to 11 kilogram. This corpses smell flowers has become the pride of Indonesian people.
A cultural expert, Tantawi Jauhari, is proposing to recognize Raflesia Arnoldii habitat as Unesco world heritage. He said that really reasonable for Indonesian Bukit Daun protected forest, in Bengkulu Province, Sumatran Island, propossed as natural heritage sites because rafllesia arnoldii is the largest flower in the world.
Indonesian government already proposed several of it natural heritage sites to be registered at UNESCO, including Kerihun Betung National Park in West Borneo Province, Bunaken National Park, Raja Ampat and Taka Bonerate National Park.
People are expecting rafflesia habitat in Bukit Daun Protected Forest also registered as Unesco world heritage, so rafllesia can be under Unesco protection.
Rafflesia plants researcher from Agriculture Faculty of Bengkulu University, Dr Agus Susatya, explain that four types of rafflesia still can be found in Bengkulu Province, but these plants condition is threatened by forest encroachers activities.
Four species of rafflesia plants that live in Bengkulu forest are arnoldi type, gadutensis, hasselti and bengkuluensis type. In the past five years, Rafflesia plant is more and more difficult to find in Bengkulu forest.
According to Agus, Raflesia that bloom in forest areas increasingly difficult to find because of illegal logging activities and massive plantations expansion.
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