''Rafflesia hasseltii'' (common name ''Cendawan Muca Rimau'' meaning "Tiger-faced Mushroom". Although Rafflesias have mycelia-like fibers penetrating their host, they are Dicots and not

mushrooms A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

.) is a

parasitic plant A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All Parasite, parasitic plants develop a specialized organ ...

species of the genus ''

Rafflesia ''Rafflesia'' (), or stinking corpse lily, is a genus of Parasitic plants, parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host p ...

'' and the family

Rafflesiaceae The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including ''Rafflesia arnoldii'', which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are e ...

which is hosted by certain

Tetrastigma ''Tetrastigma'' is a genus of plants in the grape family, Vitaceae. The plants are lianas that climb with tendrils and have palmately compound leaves. Plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants; female flowers are characterize ...

species. It can be found in

Kerinci Seblat National Park Kerinci Seblat National Park is the largest national park on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. It has a total area of 13,791 km2 and spans four provinces: West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu, and South Sumatra. Geography It is located between 10 ...

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. 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 The Orang Asli are a Homogeneity and heterogeneity, heterogeneous Indigenous peoples, indigenous population forming a national minority in Malaysia. They are the oldest inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia. As of 2017, the Orang Asli accounted f ...

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

Naturalis Biodiversity Center - L.2096111 - Rafflesia hasseltii Suringar - Artwork.jpeg, ''Rafflesia hasseltii'', collection

Pieter Willem Korthals Pieter Willem Korthals (September 1, 1807, Amsterdam – March 1892, Haarlem) was a Dutch botanist. Korthals was the official botanist with the Dutch East Indies#Government, Dutch East India Service from 1831 to 1836. Among his many discoveries ...

, Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center - L.2096113 - Rafflesia hasseltii Suringar - Artwork.jpeg, ''Rafflesia hasseltii'', collection

, Naturalis hasseltii Endemic flora of Sumatra {{Malpighiales-stub