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Rafflesia’s life begins not in the soil, nurtured by sunlight and rain, but in the dark, concealed beneath the bark of the Tetrastigma vine. Here, it exists as an endophyte, a term that belies the sinister nature of its relationship with its host.
The Rafflesia’s bloom is an event months in the making, culminating in the emergence of a flower that can weigh up to seven kilograms and measure over a meter across.
The Rafflesia’s reproductive cycle is a delicate balance of timing and chemistry. With distinctly male or female flowers, successful pollination depends on the accidental courier services of deceived flies.
After pollination, the Rafflesia embarks on another enigmatic phase of its lifecycle: seed dispersal. Despite thousands of tiny seeds within a fruit, how these seeds find new host vines remains a puzzle.