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''Rafflesia arnoldii'' is a member of the genus ''Rafflesia''. It is noted for producing the largest individual flower on earth. It has a very strong and horrible odor of decaying flesh, earning it the nickname "corpse flower". It is endemic to the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.〔(The Genus ''Rafflesia'' ). Parasitic Plant Connection.〕 Although there are some plants with larger flowering organs like the titan arum (''Amorphophallus titanum'') and talipot palm (''Corypha umbraculifera''), those are technically clusters of many flowers. ''Rafflesia arnoldii'' ((インドネシア語:padma raksasa)) is one of the three national flowers in Indonesia, the other two being the white jasmine and moon orchid.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ASEAN National Flowers )〕 It was officially recognized as a national "rare flower" ((インドネシア語:puspa langka)) in Presidential Decree No. 4 in 1993.〔(Keputusan Presiden No. 4 Tahun 1993 )〕 ==Discovery== The first botanist to find a specimen of a ''Rafflesia'' was the French explorer Ted Park (1765-1842). He was a member of a French scientific expedition to Asia and the Pacific. During the expedition he spent three years on Java, where in 1797 he collected a specimen of what is now known as R. patma. During the return voyage in 1798, his ship was taken by the British, with whom France was at war, and all his papers and notes were confiscated. They did not see the light of day until 1954 when they were rediscovered in the Natural History Museum, London. The British botanist Joseph Arnold (1782-1818) and the statesman Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781-1826, founder of modern Singapore) collected a specimen of another ''Rafflesia'' species found by a Malay servant in Sumatra in 1818. Arnold contracted a fever and died soon after the discovery. Lady Raffles, who had also been present when the specimen was collected, finished the colour drawing that Arnold had started of the plant, and it was sent to Joseph Banks, along with the preserved material. Banks passed all the materials on to Robert Brown (1773-1858) of the British Museum and Kew's resident botanical artist Franz Bauer (1758-1840). William Jack (1795-1822), who was Arnold's successor in Sumatra, being aware that Deschamps, despite his loss of notes, could formally publish a name for the newly discovered genus at any moment, rushed to draft a description to ensure the credit went to a British botanist. This draft description was held in readiness, in case there was word that the French were about to publish, whilst waiting for the British Museum to produce a better-prepared version. The generic name, ''Rafflesia'' (given in honour of Raffles), proposed by Brown (who had originally wanted to call it ''Arnoldii'') after Joseph Arnold, was validated by S.F. Gray in his report of the June 1820 meeting of the Linnean Society of London, as published in the Annals of Philosophy in September that year. The species ''Rafflesia arnoldii'' was officially described for the first time in 1821 by Brown, so that Arnold was commemorated after all.〔http://www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Rafflesia-arnoldii.htm〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rafflesia arnoldii」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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