{"id":213662,"date":"2024-03-15T10:53:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T10:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/15\/saving-the-worlds-largest-flowers-in-the-philippines\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:20:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:20:35","slug":"saving-the-worlds-largest-flowers-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/15\/saving-the-worlds-largest-flowers-in-the-philippines\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving the world’s largest flowers in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Rafflesia<\/div>
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Rafflesia panchoana on Mount Kemalugong in the Philippines<\/p>\n

Chris Thorogood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

RAFFLESIA<\/i> is a parasitic plant that spends most of its life cycle within its host, a tropical vine, emerging only to bloom. Its flowers are the largest in the world, spanning up to a metre. Despite this, little is known about its life cycle, and it is almost impossible to grow.<\/p>\n

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\"Rhizanthes<\/div>
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A Rafflesia relative, Rhizanthes deceptor, in the hill forests of Bengkulu, Sumatra<\/p>\n

Chris Thorogood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Half of the Rafflesia species<\/i><\/a> known to science were described in the past two decades, yet most have since come close to extinction. This is a plant in peril. On a recent trip in the Philippines, I saw a population decimated to make way for crops. As is often the case, a smallholder farmer was responsible \u2013 somebody just trying to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

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A view of Bengkulu<\/p>\n

Chris Thorogood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

What is the solution? Protecting habitats is the best safeguard. But this only works if we know where Rafflesia<\/i> occurs in the first place. Often, we don\u2019t. Local community action groups are crucial in this respect to monitor populations.<\/p>\n

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Showing the size of Rafflesia arnoldii in south Bengkulu<\/p>\n

Chris Thorogood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

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Beyond in-habitat conservation, most plants can be protected in seed banks or botanic gardens. But Rafflesia<\/i> is an intractable parasite. The only botanic garden to have cultivated it successfully is in Bogor, Indonesia, where Rafflesia<\/i>-infected vines are grafted onto new, uninfected rootstocks.<\/p>\n

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Chris Thorogood, Freddie Chavez, Adriane Tobias and Pastor Malabrigo Jr with their Rafflesia graft in the Sierra Madre mountains in the Philippines<\/p>\n

Chris Thorogood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In 2022, my colleagues Pastor Malabrigo Jr and Adriane Tobias at the University of the Philippines Los Ba\u00f1os and I went to Bogor to learn how to grow the ungrowable. Back in the Philippines, we attempted the country\u2019s first ever Rafflesia<\/i> propagation in a protected forest reserve. If our R. panchoana<\/i> graft is successful, we will have created a template for propagating Rafflesia<\/i> species on the brink of extinction in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Chris Thorogood is deputy director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and author of<\/em> Pathless Forest<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

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