Rafflesia hasseltii

Rafflesia hasseltii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Rafflesiaceae
Genus:	Rafflesia
Species:	R. hasseltii
Binomial name
Rafflesia hasseltii Suringar

Rafflesia hasseltii (common name Cendawan Muca Rimau meaning "Tiger-faced Mushroom". Although Rafflesias have mycelia-like fibers penetrating their host, they are of course Dicots and not mushrooms.) It is a parasitic plant species of the genus Rafflesia and the family Rafflesiaceae which is hosted by certain Tetrastigma species. It can be found in Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia. R. hasseltii has by far the widest variation in form, color and pattern of any of the Rafflesias.

Uses

Traditional tribes such as the Orang Asli sell the flowers as a folk medicine. Researchers in Malaysia slashed a group of 36 rats and smeared either the powdered flower mashed into a hydrogel paste (at two concentrations), a commercial hydrogel for wounds, or a placebo on the wounds. They conclude that wounds of the surviving rats smeared with the flower or hydrogel looked to them as if they had healed nicer than those of the placebo rats, although there was no significant difference between flower concentrations or commercial hydrogel.

References

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  Rafflesia hasseltii, collection Pieter Willem Korthals, Naturalis
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  Rafflesia hasseltii, collection Pieter Willem Korthals, Naturalis