02.14.08

The Corpse Flower

Posted in 2008 Potpourri at 11:41 pm by Miracle ♪♫

My fascination for flowers appears to have been
present for as long as I can remember, and this allurement was
reinforced when my family and I lived in a rural, or rather, pristine
setting for several years during my childhood.

The
place seemed enchanted and one of my fondest memories was getting
“lost” under giant trees and wandering off farther than the boundaries
my parents were comfortable with. Aside from
standing still to let a snake pass me “unnoticed” and allowing him to
demonstrate his sense of humour by slithering its way over my foot,
there was also something else in those excursions that I looked forward
to… and because I was only a child, the seemingly tall-tales of my
expeditions were too incredible for adult ears that sometimes it was
better to withhold tales of my secret adventures. It was more exciting in that manner anyway.

One of the outlandish stories was about the giant flower. I
was a little girl so I could claim that the single flower that
magically sprung annually at the feet of the tall trees was this big; *stretches arms wide* The mysterious thing about it was that when I came back for it the next day, it was nowhere to be seen. Maybe
it withered like those short-lived midnight flowers, or perhaps I
wandered in the wrong direction, but I only saw it for only a day, once
a year.

Circa twenty years later, I read about the Rafflesia and searched for photos… when eureka! The
flowers in the photos had the same burgundy and velvety petals that
were enormous enough to only exist in fairy tale forests.

Why all of a sudden I recall this account?  Valentine’s Day. Its
huge petals of deceiving vivid colours that attract so many but when
you come very close to it, it has this stench of pagan origin, that
superficially beautiful as it is, it is not worthy of symbolizing Love. No, not even this close… *presses
thumb and pointer together tightly* …and like the flowers we receive on
Valentine’s Day, we cannot preserve or prolong their blooming forever
as much as we want to. The next day will be just
another wilting day, and what’s left of it will be but a mere memory…
and perhaps a few browning petals preserved in a book. *sigh* Love… we can do better than carelessly commemorate or confine it for only a day, once a year.

From Wikipedia:
Rafflesia
is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. It was discovered in the
Indonesian rain forest by an Indonesian guide working for Dr. Joseph
Arnold in 1818, and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the leader
of the expedition. It contains approximately 26 species (including four
incompletely characterized species as recognized by Meijer 1997), all
found in southeastern Asia, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra and
Kalimantan, West Malaysia, and the Philippines. The plant has no stems,
leaves or true roots. It is an endoparasite of vines in the genus
Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), spreading its root-like haustoriaflower. In
some species, such as Rafflesia arnoldii, the flower may be over 100 cm
in diameter, and weigh up to 10 kg. Even the smallest species, R.
manillana, has 20 cm diameter flowers. The flowers look and smell like
rotting meat, hence its local names which translate to “corpse flower”
or “meat flower” (but see below). The vile smell that the flower gives
off attracts insects such as carrion flies, which transport pollen from
male to female flowers. Little is known about seed dispersal, however,
tree shrews and other forest mammals apparently eat the fruits and
disperse the seeds. Rafflesia is an official state flower of Sabah in
Malaysia, as well as for the Surat Thani Province, Thailand. inside the
tissue of the vine. The only part of the plant that can be seen outside
the host vine is the five-petaled flower. In some species, such as
Rafflesia arnoldii, the flower may be over 100 cm in diameter, and
weigh up to 10 kg. Even the smallest species, R. manillana, has 20 cm
diameter flowers. The flowers look and smell like rotting meat, hence
its local names which translate to “corpse flower” or “meat flower”
(but see below). The vile smell that the flower gives off attracts
insects such as carrion flies, which transport pollen from male to
female flowers. Little is known about seed dispersal, however, tree
shrews and other forest mammals apparently eat the fruits and disperse
the seeds. Rafflesia is an official state flower of Sabah in Malaysia,
as well as for the Surat Thani Province, Thailand.

The
name “corpse flower” applied to Rafflesia is confusing because this
common name also refers to the Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) of
the family Araceae. Moreover, because Amorphophallus has the world’s
largest unbranched inflorescence, it is sometimes mistakenly credited
as having the world’s largest flower. Both Rafflesia and Amorphophallus
are flowering plants, but they are still distantly related. Rafflesia
arnoldii has the largest single flower of any flowering plant, at least
when one judges this by weight. Amorphophallus titanum has the largest
unbranched inflorescence, while the Talipot palm (Corypha
umbraculifera) forms the largest branched inflorescence, containing
thousands of flowers; this plant is monocarpic, meaning that
individuals die after flowering.
Philippine Species:
Since
2002 there has been a tremendous amount of activity by Filipino
scientists who have discovered and named several new species of
Rafflesia. Before this time there were two species known: R. manillana
and R. schadenbergiana, the latter of which was last seen in 1882 on
Mt. Apo in Davao Province on Mindanao Island, but was thought to be
extinct.

“What’s new?”
When confronted with this question from someone who I
was romantically linked with a decade ago as remnant red hues of
Valentine’s faded yesterday, I was tempted to say “nothing much.” But that would have been lying. So I answered, “there’s
always something new and changing about me, but there’s also a little
girl inside that’s constant…” and when he sighed in relief because it
was the little girl he fell in love with in the first place, I smiled.
The
conversation did not mean that I ended up with someone overnight, for I
believe we are in love with different people now, but it is a nice
reminder that in my core, there’s an unchanging little girl, and no
matter how much I try new things or struggle to “improve” as an adult,
musically, mentally, or emotionally, the innocent little girl is
capable of being loved without all the perks of being a “woman”.
After
all, isn’t it the heart and faith of a little child that God looks for
in us?

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