The Rafflesia of Ulu Geroh

Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. There are 27 species can be found in South East Asia, Malay Peninsular (Peninsular Malaysia and South Thailand), Borneo Island, Sumatra, and the Philippines.
The biggest flower has no stems, leaves or true roots. This parasite flower spends most of its life as a chain of cells inside the tissue of its host vine. The forests surrounding the Semai Orang Asli village of Ulu Geroh are rich with Rafflesia Cantleyi species. One of the feature of Rafflesia Cantleyi is its ability to form flowers on the aerial portions of its host Tetrastigma. Tetrastigma is a genus of plants in the grape family, Vitaceae.	18 inches in diameter
Due to the short life span of the flower, the trip the see the flower can only be confirm one (1) day before the departure date. This is because I wanted all the participants to witness a full bloom flower by themself. The Orang Asli do a search for the full bloom flower and inform me is good to go. On 5 September 2010, together with 8 members travel to Gopeng to see the flower.
Group posing with the Rafflesia
The journey to Ulu Geroh takes about 45 minutes from Gopeng town. Preferable a 4WD to get there. From the Rafflesia Centre, the Semai people lead us to a jungle trek. The trail is call Pacat Trail and is one of the difficult trek going up steep slope. The 45 minutes trek into the forest, lead us to the flower. It was only one (1) full bloom flower but that was good enough. It has a diameter of 18 inches and the biggest I have seen so far.
the newly grown bud	the rotten flower
We spend about 1 hour taking photos and studying the flower. On the way back, I spotted few Rajah Brooke Butterfly flying, however don't see any of them at their site. Before the trip end, we were served with a delicious lunch at Gua Tempurung restaurant.
Photos by Wai Kong \| Writeup by Wai Kong