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DNA of giant ‘corpse flower’ parasite surprises biologists (quantamagazine.org)
120 points by theafh on April 21, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 14 comments



Some other plants lack chloroplasts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myco-heterotrophy

eg Ghost plant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropa_uniflora


Probably not a coincidence that it's another parasitic species.


"DNA of Rafflesia surprises biologists" would be just a fine title, "The DNA of Rafflesia is strange" would be even better.

Biologists are not stunned all the time as so many people apparently love to think. I understand that the cartoonist image of smart people being shocked is a comforting idea for some readers.

And there is not need to repeat again or again that is a parasite or smells like carrion like it came from mars. Rafflesia is one of the most famous vegetable trivia and part of the popular knowledge.


"DNA of Rafflesia lacks genomes for Chloroplasts", would be an even better title. Why does articles have to lead the reader in surprise?


Because it has to be click bait


While I'd heard of the plant, I can't say I knew of it being called Rafflesia.


This is super interesting. Especially the discussion on the vine with the single line of parasite cells that spans nearly the length of the vine that hosts it. Then they mention that the parasite DNA has really long interons, which are non-protein-encoding base pair segments. The parasite has extremely long stretches of interons, and they don't really know why. Which is a weird fractal, there is a vine with a long internal strand of parasite cells, which contain a very long strand of DNA interons.


If I saw this flower on a movie set I'd say "that prop looks fake". Wild.


Saw, maybe. Smelled? There's not really forgetting that.

The name is really, really well earned. It's not just like rotting meat. Recently dead things smell worse than just rotting meat, and that is exactly what it stinks like. Like feces, and rotting meat, and a mix of all of that.


Looks like someone has been traumatized for life after smelling it once. :)

Jokes apart, that is a very interesting description - I wish there was somewhere here in Bay Area I could smell it..


San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers has at least one. They don't bloom extremely often. Most recent time to smell it was a two day period in August 2020. https://sfrichmondreview.com/2020/09/02/rare-corpse-flower-b...


Just for the record, San Francisco has the OTHER corpse flower, the dead man's corpse flower or Titan Arum. We talk about a flower that can measure more than 3m.

Some people could wonder why Rafflesia is the biggest flower in the planet if there is a 3m flower around. The explanation is that what is shown in San Francisco is not a single flower. Is a bunch of flowers shaped as a single one. Thus, Titan Arum has the biggest group of flowers in the planet, and Rafflessia is the biggest single flower.

This one is not a parasite and any brash gardener can culture it (and enjoy the experience of be hated by the entire neighborhood). We all have at least one of its cousins at home in fact. Is very easy to culture.


Aka Amorphophallus titanum aka corpse lily

A few are in Sydney and Melbourne Australia, but you'd have to be lucky to see them in their three days of flowering after seven years.


I've always wanted to see one of these but I probably shouldn't. Apparently one of their major threats is ecotourism.




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