Genetic analysis of the Rafflesia paves way to the new findings. A plant biologist, Charles Davis, at Harvard University, led the research and find that it comes from an ancient family of plants known for tiny ones. Many of its botanical cousins boast flowers just a few millimeters wide. The family is Euphorbiacea, includes the poinsettia, Irish bells and crops such as the rubber tree, castor oil plant and cassava shrub. Rafflesia lives inside the tissue of a tropical vine related to the grapevine, with only its flower visible. It is devoid of leaves, shoots, roots, and does not engage in photosynthesis. The flower can weigh 7 kg. They are blotchy blood red. They smell like decaying flesh. And they can emit heat, perhaps mimicking a newly killed animal in order to entice the carrion flies that pollinate it.
(the Bussiness Line , 14th January, 2007)
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