Feb 14, 2025
Do you think Valentine’s Day stinks? Then we’ve got the perfect flower for you! The largest flower in the world, the stinking corpse lily (Rafflesia arnoldi), may look beautiful—but it smells like rotten flesh. The pungent aroma is meant to attract carrion flies, which spread its pollen from flower to flower and help this South Asian rainforest plant reproduce. The parasitic corpse flower has no stem, leaves, or roots. Instead of using energy from the Sun to make nutrients, it draws all of its nourishment from its host, a species of vine in the grape family.
Photo: Maizal Chaniago, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
