Rafflesiaceae

Family Description

Distribution Map

List of Genera

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Photographs

Rafflesia

• Photo Gallery of all species!

• Rafflesia Web Sites

• Wikipedia treatment of Rafflesia

• "Rafflesia of the World" - Book by J. Nais

• Rafflesia Research and Monitoring Team - Blog maintained by Kamarudin Mat Salleh

• Philippine Rafflesia by Julie Barcelona - PNPCSI web site

• A Poem About Rafflesia - by Dan Nickrent

Rhizanthes

Rhizanthes deceptor. The name alludes to Rhizanthes's notoriety in deceiving flies and scientists alike!

• Flower. Ulu Gadut (nr. Padang, Bt. Gambir), Sumatra. Photograph by W. Meijer.
• Female flower, ca. 12 hours after it started opening around midnight. Photo from Bänziger and Hansen (2000, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 48: 117-143) used with permission.

Rhizanthes infanticida. Photographs from Bänziger (1995, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 43: 337-365) and Bänziger and Hansen (2000, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 48: 117-143) used with permission. The specific name, which means "to kill young children" alludes to the flower's pollination syndrome which leads to the death of the pollinators' brood.

• Plant in its typical habitat in Southern Thailand. A flower in full bloom is at left bottom and five large buds are in the background.
• A large bud (14 cm circumference) and two small buds (left one 2.5 cm, right one 3.0 cm) still enclosed in the host tissue.
• Bud 12 hours before anthesis. Note the diverging bracts.
• Bud two hours after opening started at midnight.
• Bud six hours after opening started at midnight.
• Bud eight hours after opening started at midnight.
• Bud nine hours after opening started at midnight.
• A freshly opened male flower from S. Perak, Malaysia.
• Ampulla with ring of anthers of male flower. Note the irregular band of yellow pollen mush consisting of merged droplets.
• Ampulla and stigmatic fascia in female flower. Note the white papillae.
• Longitudinal section of female flower bud (10.6 cm circumference) cut to show internal white hairs.
• Fruit (22 cm circumference).
• Female flower with seven carrion flies: Chrysomya megacephala (upper arrow), Lucilia porphyrina (lower arrow) among several C. pinguis or C.chani. A yellow Trigona bee is hovering above a nectar pad (upper left corner).
• Male flower.
• Close-up of the central ampula from a male flower. The fly (Chrysomya pinguis or C.chani) has just exited the annular gap between the anthers and the furry hairs and is carrying a large pollen smear on it back.
• Lucilia porphyrina sucking nectar from the ramenta-covered nectar pad that is present at the tip of each perigone lobe. The caudal appendages that terminate each perigone lobe are also shown.

Rhizanthes lowii. Photograph from Bänziger and Hansen (2000, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 48: 117-143) used with permission.

• Male flower with very long ramenta pad. Photo by A. Kocyan.

Sapria

Sapria himalayana forma himalayana. Photographs from Bänziger, Hansen and Kreetiyutanont (2000, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 48: 213-219) used with permission.

• Opening flower. Thailand. Photo by Hans Bänziger.
• Comparison of the typical form of S. himalayana (left) and forma albovinosa (right); both male flowers. The warts on the flower on the left are yellow and the ones on the right are white.

Sapria himalayana forma albovinosa. Photographs from Bänziger, Hansen and Kreetiyutanont (2000, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 48: 213-219) used with permission.

• Female flower, ca. 11 X 12 cm. Note the pale disk.
• Male flower, ca. 10 X 11 cm. Note the red disk.
• Longitudinal sections of female (left) and male (right) flowers of Sapria himalayana forma albovinosa.

Sapria poilanei. Photographs from Bänziger and Hansen (1997, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 45: 149-170) used with permission.

• Male flower. Note the white ridges in the tube
• Longitudinal section of male flower.
• Female flower, which also has white ridges in the tube.
• Longitudinal section of female flower.
• Female flower from the type location on Mount Samkos in the Cambodian Cardamom mountains. Photo by Jeremy Holden (Fauna and Flora International).

Sapria ram. Photographs from Bänziger and Hansen (1997, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 45: 149-170) used with permission.

• Male flower. Note the brownish ridges in the tube.
• Longitudinal section of male flower.
• Female flower.
• Longitudinal section of female flower.
• Male Sarcophaga seniorwhitei on Sapria ram attached to its host liana. Unlike the females, male flies are not pollinators of this flower but use it for a rendezvous site to find a mate. Photo February 12, 2001 by Hans Bänziger. Reproduced with permission from Journal of Natural History (2004, 38: 1677-1694).

Phylogeny

• Nickrent, D. L, A. Blarer, Y.-L. Qiu, R. Vidal-Russell, F. E. Anderson. 2004. Phylogenetic inference in Rafflesiales: the influence of rate heterogeneity and horizontal gene transfer. BMC Evolutionary Biology 4: 40. For a PDF file of this article, click HERE (1.2 MB). For the full text online version, go HERE.
• Phylogenetic position of Rafflesiaceae in Malpighiales determined.

References