Last minute souvenir
Added 2023-12-19 09:15:58 +0000 UTCLast day in KL and Malaysia so I treated myself to some last minute ink - the Pakma raksasa/giant padma/kerubut/Rafflesia arnoldii, otherwise known as the corpse flower or corpse lily. ☠️☠️☠️
It is one of the rarest plants in the world and is on the verge of extinction. The flower of Rafflesia grows to a diameter of around one meter, weighing up to 11 kilograms. Everything seems stacked against the Rafflesia. First, its seeds are difficult to germinate. Then it has gambled its life entirely on parasitizing just one sort of vine. This is a dangerously cavalier approach to life because without the vine it’s dead.😱
Having gorged itself on the immoral earnings of parasitism for a few years, the plant eventually breaks out as a flower bud, swells up over several months, and then bursts into flower. But most of the flower buds die before opening, and even in bloom, Rafflesia is fighting the clock because the flower only lasts a few days, it has to mate quickly with a nearby flower of the opposite sex. The trouble is, the male and female flowers are now so rare that it’s a miracle to find a couple ready to cross-pollinate each other...🥀
I feel an affinity with this poetic futility of life. We only have a short existence in the scheme of things and it's a bloody miracle that we're even here. This is my memento mori - a constant reminder to me that life is short and to make the most of the ephemeral beauty of our existence while we can. ✨️
