Secrets of World’s Largest and Stinkiest Flower Revealed

Much of the mystery behind the world's largest and stinkiest flower, the rafflesia have been revealed.

The rafflesia is the worlds largest flower, the bloom measuring about 3 feet wide. It is also the stinkiest bloom in the world, smelling much like rotting flesh to attract pollinators.

A report in the journal Science Thursday said that the raffesia, a blood-red bloom, was discovered in 1818 during a scientific expedition to a Sumatran rain forest. It comes from a family of tiny flowers and not big ones, most of which are just a few millimeters wide. The family includes the poinsettia, and other crops like the rubber tree, caster oil plant and cassava shrub.

The rafflesia flower is a parasite that lives on a tropical vine similar to the grapevine. The flower can weigh 15 pounds and look and smell like rotting flesh. They can even emit heat that mimics a newly killed animal, and this tricks insects into pollinating it.