Sabah

Hi everyone. Let’s move to my fourth entry about the interesting places. For this entry, I chose Sabah where I will talk about the largest flower in the world which is Rafflesia.

Rafflesia Keithii Meijer

According to Mjoberg (1928), Rafflesia penetrates smell more repulsive than any buffalo carcass in an advanced stage of decomposition. Here I would like to quote Nais (2000), Meijer (1997), Mat Salleh (1991) where they stated that “there are approximately 17 Rafflesia species distributed throughout Southeast Asia”. These species are highly specific as to the hosts that they parasitize, preferring only a few species of Tetra stigma (a member of the common grape family) that are distributed in the same geographic area.

Here I would like to share with you guys the two example of advantages of Rafflesia in many aspects. First is, the advantages to host plants. Although their host plants have been parasitized by the entophytes, their benefit is to provide some measure of value to them. This quasi-symbiotic relationship helps ensure the survival of the host, which, in turn, ensures survival of the parasitic organism. As I quoted from Mycosphere Online’s “Journal of Fungal Biology”, he stated that “chemical compounds produced by entophytes boost these survival rates. Particularly, Rafflesia cantleyi's anti-microbial activity provided an internal plant medicine where it gave a health advantage to its host.

Second is Rafflesia give advantage to people where the ongoing research reveals that Rafflesia provides anti-microbial protection to its host plant may also provide the similar protection to people. Indigenous people used Rafflesia in medical as a fever reducer and a post-childbirth antibiotic. Besides that, anti-microbial action from Rafflesia was effectively proved against bacteria that caused food poisoning (Bacillus cereus) and staph infections (Staphylococcus aureus).

Blooming Rafflesia

Do you ever see the blooming Rafflesia? Now, I will explain a little bit about the blooming Rafflesia that rarely happens. There was a twin-blooming Rafflesia from a largest species of Sabah which is Rafflesia Keithii in Hamilin Rafflesia Garden near Poring. If you want to see the blooming Rafflesia, you need to pay for the entrance fee which cost you RM20 or USD 6 for locals, RM30 or USD9 for foreign tourists.

The Rafflesia takes 6-9 months to bloom from the bud (like human baby). One of the blooming Rafflesia has 6 fleshy petal (normal is 5) and the flower usually opens at night and the petals take about 24 to 48 hours to fully extend.

You may watch the twin-blooming Rafflesia below:

Resources:

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~tbarkman/rafflesia/Rafflesia.html

http://www.mysabah.com/wordpress/blooming-rafflesia/

http://www.ehow.com/info_12158749_advantages-rafflesia.html