Why the Rafflesia Flower is so rare? The rafflesia is one of the world's rarest flowers for good reason: nearly perfect conditions must exist for a rafflesia to bloom. First, a Tetrastigma vine - a member of the grape family - must become infected by the parasite. The Tetrastigma is the only vine in the world that can host the endoparasite that create a rafflesia flower. Next, a tiny bud appears on the vine. Many buds rot before maturing, some are even collected to be used as medicine by local people. Over a year, the tiny bud swells to a ball and eventually bursts into a rafflesia flower.
To reproduce, a rafflesia begins to smell like rotting meat near the end of its life cycle. The smell attracts flies which inadvertently carry pollen to other rafflesia flowers, if any, within range. To make matters more difficult, rafflesia flowers are unisex and are usually found within range of the same sex. Insects not only have to carry pollen to another rafflesia, they must take it to the opposite sex and do so within the brief flowering window of three to five days!
If successful, the rafflesia flower produces seedy fruit around six inches in diameter. Although not proven, squirrels and small animals are thought to carry the seeds, helping the rafflesia to spread.
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