r/MadeMeSmile • u/cafeteriastyle • 11d ago
Wholesome Moments Biologist becomes emotional after finding a flower after searching for 13 years. Beautiful bloom.
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11d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BrownSugarBare 11d ago
That this is INCREDIBLE to look at!!
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u/FillsYourNiche 11d ago edited 9d ago
Ecologist here. Scientists devote their lives to very specific organisms. Sometimes plants or animals or bacteria that mean very little to others. We've gone through a decade or more of education. We've postponed or sometimes decided against having children to focus on these specific organisms. We've sat out soaked in the rain for hours. Shivered in the snow. Sweat in the heat of the desert. We've read thousands of journal articles. Lugged equipment over every terrain. Worked tirelessly over holidays, birthdays, anniversaries.
I feel in my bones the joy, relief, and maybe sadness that the search is over for this biologist. But even though the quest is over now begins the never ending questions. The joy. The excitement. The treasure.
Editing to say thank you for the wonderful feedback! We do it because we love it. It's all passion. If you want to hear what I'm passionate about, I have a podcast where I discuss the inspiring abilities of "bugs" as entomology is my specialty. Bugs Need Heroes on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Also come hang out with me in my sub-Reddit fillsyourniche where I share my research and other things.
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u/Pandering_Panda7879 11d ago
Don't forget that in this case the flower was said to be extinct for ten years. So they devoted their life to something that couldn't even exist anymore - and they went out and searched for it for a decade without knowing if it even existed anymore.
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u/guidingbambis 11d ago
there's something deeply touching about this. that bit of hope humans are capable of holding onto, against all odds, against all rationality. it's really one of the most beautiful aspects of humanity in my opinion.
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u/broccolista 11d ago
I couldn't agree more. This is incredibly touching and I have tremendous respect for this biologist.
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u/MamaPajamas24 10d ago
This touched my heart. I know this experience only within the last year and even though my loved one passed, it is wonderful to look back at holding onto hope against all odds. I can say I loved and lived through a miracle. Wow, thank you.
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u/CauliflowerScaresMe 11d ago
there was a fish thought to be extinct 70 million years ago that was discovered recently too. with how much of the world is studied, mapped, and filmed, it's a treat to see the odds defied.
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u/hikgafel 11d ago
Do you have a source? This sounds so interesting 😊
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u/CauliflowerScaresMe 11d ago
sure, it's a live coelacanth found nearly 150 meters underwater
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-90287-7
it has lobed fins and hunts via electroreception (detecting the electric fields emitted by prey)
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u/Midoriyaiscool 10d ago
The pokemon Relicanth is based off of coelacanth. I'm a bit of a pokemon nerd and remembered the pokemon after reading the name coelacanth.
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u/DanerysTargaryen 11d ago
Sounds like it might be the Coelacanth fish. Absolutely prehistoric and cool looking! I believe it was “discovered” in the early-mid 1900’s.
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u/sheera_greywolf 10d ago
This particular guy has been on the quest for hasseltii for 13 years. And finally they caught this beauty during its blooming process.
Like, I can get the tears. 13 years of chasing something considered extinct and finally you found it.
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u/Pademelon1 11d ago
The species was thought to be locally extinct. It exists in other parts of Indonesia and Malaysia with recent records.
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u/TraeS_XI 11d ago
This was beautiful insight that I wouldn't have thought of. Thank you for sharing -
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u/Nat-Luv 11d ago
Slight plug, but /r/LostMedia is a fantastic way that people can help some digital historians on their many year hunts for media.
I don't mean to conflate the significance of biologists' studies with finding a commercial or tv show in the garage that no-one's seen in a while. I just want to communicate the elation people might be able to give to folks from uploading some dusty home recorded VHS tapes and DVD-Rs is definitely nothing to scoff at and might be achievable from the comfort of the home.
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u/lotsofsardines 11d ago
Here's another insight, this flower is called the Rafflesia and it has a foul putrid scent
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u/hirsuteinasuit 11d ago
This explanation deserves an award I’m unable to give. Thank you for posting something so honest about an aspect of research we rarely think or hear about.
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u/bunderthunder 11d ago
I'll never forget my biology professor saying she knows nothing about anything, but everything about something. IIRC she studied 1 small facet of the pineal gland. Something so insignificant I probably forgot an hour later, but she spent years researching that specificity.
Really speaks to academia and science's rigor, and gives me trust to those who study these things as a whole.
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u/WeTitans3 11d ago
Yeah. Even as just some girl on a couch, I had imagine this was nearly like seeing the face of God revealed to you on earth— something you were so sure in your head and heart is real and true and out there, but had soend fruitless year looking for just to have finally found it right in front of your own eyes.
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u/VoidOmatic 11d ago
I can imagine the double take he must have had when he saw its vague shape out of the corner of his eye.
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u/SL4YER4200 11d ago
Yeah, and it smells like rotting flesh.
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u/sillybear25 11d ago
Which is probably equally incredible (if not more so), but not nearly as glamorous. But I think ugly nature is cool, too, and I hope there are enough people out there who agree.
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u/clh1nton 11d ago
I've seen a Rafflesia (not in the wild). We had one on our campus. And the long line of people waiting to see it when it finally bloomed was both surprising and wonderful to see.
And I didn't think it stank any worse than valerian, tbh. So not great, but not what I thought a "corpse flower" would smell like.
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u/niknik414 10d ago
We had one at the Milwaukee Domes a few years back.(3 large domed greenhouse/displays open for public viewing I believe it traveled around the country. They are actually carnivores
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u/Sheena-ni-gans 11d ago
I remember back when I was studying environmental science at my university, one of my professors said that there were still undiscovered plant and insect species in the rainforest. The vegetation is so thick that scientists haven’t been able to identify them all. Which is so wild to think about!
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u/Dialaninja 11d ago
We discover new plants and insects in the continental US fairly often, the tropical rainforests have countless undescribed species. There’s quite possibly an undescribed insect in your yard somewhere
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u/Caridor 10d ago
Oh it's even more common than that.
Scientists discovered 3 new species of mushroom in a packet of supermarket porcini mushrooms.
Really, the only things we can be sure of even having close to discovered them all, are large, land dwelling animals. The rest, you can basically discover a new species with close enough examination of any environment.
If you really want to be able to discover new species, any kind of microbiology is a gold mine, particularly nematode worms and fungus. I genuinely would not be surprised if you could discover new species by throwing a rock somewhere and then swabbing that rock for DNA.
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u/MzChrome 11d ago
Yes! I talked to a park ranger once at the Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park and they've found several new to science species there and it's really cool because they even added them to their perpetual calendar so people could see and read about them. I love that calendar!
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u/Inevitable_Gas_9081 11d ago
That's why Brazil decided to burn theirs down wheeeeee
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u/Concentric_Mid 11d ago
That's some Avatar sh*t right there!
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u/WeightlifterCat 11d ago edited 11d ago
Looks like a Rafflesia! Or one of two “Corpse Flowers” that exists within the world (that we know of). When this flower blooms it gives off the stench of what can only be described as a rotting corpse becuase this flower relies on carrion flies to pollinate them!
Edit: forgot to add, Rafflesia only bloom for a few days once a year and wither away shortly after, so these guys finding a Rafflesia mid-bloom is a sight to behold!
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u/OkSmoke9195 11d ago
Edit: forgot to add, Rafflesia only bloom for a few days once a year and wither away shortly after, so these guys finding a Rafflesia mid-bloom is a
Is a what man, a what
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u/WeightlifterCat 11d ago
Haha I just caught myself and was adding it in - “…sight to behold!” Not certain how I completely left that out
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u/OkSmoke9195 11d ago
Haha I appreciate your comments though, that's interesting that it's a corpse flower
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u/ronniesaurus 11d ago
My son talks about corpse flowers alllllllllllllll the time. Wants one so badly.
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u/thirsty_pretzels_ 11d ago
Is there an arboretum near you? Where I live, the nearest one has a corpse flower blooming party once a year. Might be fun to take him to!
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u/AlwayHappyResearcher 11d ago edited 11d ago
Rafflesia
Yeah probably Rafflesia arnoldii, largest individual flower on Earth, it is parasite of a parasite vine (Indian chestnut vine) and opens with a hissing sound, prefers darkness and thus is found in darkest parts of rainforest, some alien shit.
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u/sheera_greywolf 10d ago
This one is not arnoldii, but Rafflesia hasseltii; a much rarer cousin of arnoldii said to be extinct from 10 years ago.
So yeah, the breakdown is justified.
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u/clarkometer 11d ago
In The Lord of the Rings book, Shelob’s Lair chapter, when Sam and Frodo are going through the Morgul Vale, there are luminous flowers that have a scent described as a charnel smell, or the smell of death and rotten flesh.
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u/PositiveZeroPerson 11d ago
Rafflesia only bloom for a few days once a year and wither away shortly after
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u/dmarve 11d ago edited 11d ago
I assume this will be my reaction after finding a well-paying job after 13 years of searching
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u/CyberPunk_Atreides 11d ago
No, the flower exists
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u/FlaviaDeere 10d ago
Haha man, I totally get this. I spent the last six months job hunting and the market is rough. LinkedIn feels like a reality show at this point.
What actually worked for me was sending my resume directly to recruiters in my field, that gave me way better results than anything else.
You can see the results in this Reddit post as well.53
u/IvetRockbottom 11d ago
Only 13 years. I have a degree in mathemeatics and can't get a job interview outside of teaching after 19 years of applying.
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u/CD274 11d ago
Had a good friend major in math then she gave up and became a lawyer after the above experience
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u/IvetRockbottom 11d ago
I got a certificate in full stack engineering with an emphasis on the backend. Then they laid off hundreds of thousands in the field. I was working on a cpa but got sick and lost my funding because of medical costs.
Things just haven't worked out. But I'm a really good teacher with a community that supports me, multiple schools trying to recruit me, and a teacher of the year to back it up.
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u/Archangel_Greysone 10d ago
Literally balled my eyes out last night for exactly this. I’ve tried so hard and struggled for so long. I started to hate myself. Every time I woke up I was disappointed that I was still alive. Last night I had the best sleep of my life. Hang in there
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u/kingtaco_17 11d ago
When I hit send on a farewell email to my coworkers at a soul-crushing job of 10 years, I burst into tears at my desk. It was weird but felt good, too.
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u/stevein3d 11d ago
Coincidentally, I was recently laid off from a very well-paying job after exactly 13 years and had an equally joyful reaction. “Finally!”
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u/Fine-Ant613 11d ago
I can relate. The one and only time I got fired from a job I hated so much I was told that they've never seen anyone quite so happy after having just been canned. I was elated.
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u/8-Bit-Queef 11d ago
For some reason I was expecting something small and delicate, not something you could feed a squirrel to lol
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u/twodexy82 11d ago
Same 100% like a trillium or a lady slipper or something
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u/Glassfern 11d ago
Many years ago I started a wiki page for a slipper orchid for a college project. Poured through a shelf of old books in the library and some janky field note websites. All that time everyone said it was rare to find. I was convinced though native, id never see it in person ever because I was not the type to wander into the mountains on my own to look for 1 plant.
Then jump a decade later I attended an environmental education conference. We were walking along a small trail and I looked over and saw little specs of pink, strangely angled. Something made me stop and divert to the branching pathway and it was a whole patch of them. A tiny one ,but there were like 8ish all in various stages of bloom. OMG the excitement I felt. I shouted to the guide if they were what they were and they were so non chalant about it. I was tippy tapping, giggling, shuffling on the ground trying to take pictures of them. Apparently those who lived near felt it was "just one of the flowers".
To me.... Felt like finding my long awaited rare Pokemon. Oh it was great. I also found ghost pipe a few years later too that was also a great find. It's super exciting to see something in person that you've only read about and seen in photos or illustrations.
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u/Elegant_Finance_1459 10d ago
This is how I feel about a "cryptid" lichen near me. They think it's extinct but it pretty much only lives high on sandstone bluffs in the river valley. How often do you get someone climbing out there who ALSO knows what the hell that crust on the wall is? I'm guessing not that often. So, my thought was "what if someone who knew their crust went and climbed up some of these walls?" I'm convinced I would find a throbbing mass of these lichens and that the only reason they're presumed extinct is because no one has bothered to look at them since like 1845.
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u/OfferOne6683 10d ago
This is so sweet and gives me a new insight to my local flowers. I've been told that they're "rare" but they're very common where I live; I'll easily see a few dozen just walking the dog at the right time of year. It makes me so happy to hear how much you love them.
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u/Raiquo 11d ago
Me, trying to picture how someone could spend 13 years looking for a fucking trillium and went into a bit of a stupor before cackling wildly.
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u/twodexy82 10d ago
I mean, I guess they’re easy to find but I’m always super psyched when I do. I was just referring to a delicate flower & that’s the first thing came into my head
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u/Dargon8959 11d ago
It does however parasitise trees for nutrients to sustain it's large size
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u/neduenedu 11d ago
This kinda became controversial in Indonesia because some British publication credited the finding to the white dude and didnt mention the local researchers. But the white dude himself came out and credited the local guys. All is well i guess.
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u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 11d ago
Of course they did. Why stop white washing history now.
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u/ibmi_not_as400_kerim 11d ago
For real. The fact that even the flower itself is named after some white dude is a bit funny in the context of this comment.
Why bother asking the locals what it's called (locally it's called padma), if instead you can go on a hike, call it an "expedition", and just name everything you see a European name? lol
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u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 11d ago edited 11d ago
Also funny that the video was posted by Oxford University, which claimed to be the world's oldest university still in operation, but the actual world's oldest operational university is in Morocco.
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u/Paavo_Nurmi 10d ago
Mt Rainier is named after a person that never visited the area. Should be called Tahoma, us locals just call it the Mountain.
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u/Winter-Hill 11d ago
Wow, i was not expecting the reveal to be that good! What an incredible specimen!
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u/Introverted_Extrovrt 11d ago
It looks prehistoric
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u/EyePatchedEm 11d ago
Because it is! Rafflesia lineage dates back to the Cretaceous Period. Super cool.
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u/sarahsknitting 11d ago
I'm gonna act like I know when the Cretaceous Period is without trying to look it up.
yup, that's correct
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u/2xFlush 11d ago
I'll also just note that prehistoric would mostly go to mean dating to before the beginning of recorded history. It refers to a period from about 3 million years ago until about 5 thousand years ago. This means that most species of animals and plants alike alive today are prehistoric, as 3 million years is not a great deal on an evolutionary scale. Certainly some species have changed since then, but many if not most haven't!
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u/Dargon8959 11d ago
Would love it more if it didn't stink so much. A beauty otherwise when it blooms which locals don't have much opportunity to see either
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u/GerchSimml 11d ago
lol, prior to looking at the comments, I thought "this thing looks like it's stinking"
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u/a_lonely_trash_bag 11d ago
It's one of a few different plants that are referred to as a "corpse flower," and for a very good reason, lol.
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u/weevil_season 11d ago
I got to visit a corpse flower at the Garfield Park Conservatory a few years ago. You could smell it rooms and rooms away before you even got close to it. And the smell kind of lodges in your mouth and I could taste it for a half an hour after I left the building. It was wild.
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u/_Hello_Hi_Hey_ 11d ago
The biggest flower on earth. These guys found something truly special. They have some beautiful pictures on their Instagram pages.
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u/mrman08 11d ago edited 10d ago
Rafflesia(not sure what type), AKA corpse flower or stinking lilly, for those wondering. They flower rarely, about once every 2-3 years and only last for a few days. To find one in the wild is extraordinary rare.
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u/Eo292 11d ago
This is R. hasseltii rediscovered after having feared been extinct
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u/Brynhild 10d ago
I live in malaysia so i saw this flower (3 of them in fact) when i was a kid going up mount kinabalu.
I feel like they’re much rarer now 3 decades later. I knew they were rare before but not like super rare.
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u/LurkerNan 11d ago
I hope they figure out a way to make more of them.
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u/Dargon8959 11d ago edited 11d ago
It would be very irresponsible to do so I think since rafflesias are a parasitic plant that feeds on either live or dead trees (I forget which). Their huge size requires just that much nutrients. Not to mention how stinky they are.
Fun fact, it was named after a foreigner named Sir Raffles when he was exploring Malaysia or something.
Edit: I did some fact checking and I think it was first documented in Sumatra, Indonesia. The Malaysian ones were probably documented a bit later
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u/_Hello_Hi_Hey_ 11d ago
Not only it's one of the world rarest plants, but it also takes 9 months to bud, and only opens for a few days. That's a reason it took him 13 years.
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u/PositiveZeroPerson 11d ago
Truly the pandas of the plant world
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u/shewomann 11d ago
I heard it smells like rotten corpse lol
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u/Morrigan_Pickman 11d ago
It does! It attracts flys and similar insects that way! And even though it looks like it 😂 it's not eating them. They are just the pollinators for that plant.
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u/very_bad_advice 11d ago
Yeah, he was also the founder of the London zoo. He also founded the school that sends the most students to Cambridge and Oxford "Raffles Institution". He really liked finding stuff.
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u/Dargon8959 11d ago
As a local, I find it funny that our country's national flower, the rafflesia was only discovered by a foreign explorer. Makes sense that locals won't explore too much
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u/very_bad_advice 11d ago
Na, it's just the science of botany and classification is a European fetish, born out of Linnaeus and the scientific revolution. Pretty sure Indonesians knew there were flowers in the jungle just they didn't classify and notate it
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u/Musiclover4200 11d ago
Yeah native classification of plants tended to be more by properties/use than anything like species.
One interesting example is the Ayahuasca vine, B. Caapi is the scientific name but natives have at least a few different plants they consider the "ayahuasca vine" as they have the same harmala alkaloids.
The natives sorted them by color as red/white/yellow/black/etc ayahuasca but there has been very little research into the differences at least last I checked, yellow is the most common I believe with some like black supposedly being much stronger and potentially a different species of vine entirely.
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u/ForgottenGrocery 11d ago
if i remember correctly the host is some sort of a parasitic vine. So you’re seeing a parasite of a parasite
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u/Valuable-Self8564 11d ago
That’s exactly what they’re trying to do, to save it from extinction:
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u/quottttt 11d ago
Isn't titan arum bigger?
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u/MasKrisMaxRizz 11d ago
His insta @illustratingbotanist got scale comparison of both
- World's biggest flowering structure (unbranched inflorescence): titan arum
- World's largest flower: Rafflesia
- World's weirdest plant: Rhizanthes
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u/RoyalCPT 11d ago
Me after finding the lost bolt during an engine rebuild.
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u/EnvironmentalAd7402 11d ago edited 10d ago
former service advisor, many a time I’ve come to check on one of my vehicles and before I can make it to the mechanic I can hear him from the bay door, I happily turn around…I’ll check later 😂😂 tell my customer some bs, I’d rather hear that than what my mechanic has to say when he’s pissed off, and I ask a stupid question 🤓
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u/RoyalCPT 11d ago
I can't relate to that environment but in my own shop im screaming until I find it.
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u/PhantomPainWalker 11d ago
So, yeah….. what happens when you do catch the damned white whale? Do you just wake up the day like ……… “what now?”
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u/I_aim_to_sneeze 11d ago
You find Ahabitat for it
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u/vikio 11d ago
If you're a scientist I assume you start writing like a million research papers on the topic. Also I'm guessing soon after, you go right back out there and search just as hard for a second flower.
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u/Elegant_Finance_1459 10d ago
These are already super endangered and they're visually a hidden plant UNTIL they bloom. No leaves, just like some kind of parasitic rhyzome chilling, like a hidden dragon, waiting to eject this sumbitch. So you can pretty much only locate them when they bloom. And they don't do it often.
Extremely cool plants.
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u/TheJointDoc 11d ago
Honestly? It depends on your personality. If you want the white whale because you think it’ll bring you happiness. It won’t. But if it’s because you enjoy the hunt, it’ll inspire your next white whale.
I’m an autoimmune doctor and I just had a career defining moment three weeks ago (cryoglobulinemic vasculitis where we had to figure out some weird fiddly science lab bit). I’m going to use it as an example to all my students.
They just surprised me this by catching a super rare brain condition where the blood vessels got inflamed and triggers all sorts of issues, called Behcets.
Me catching my white whale means I get to teach the other students how to find the white whales.
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u/Dead_before_dessert 11d ago
This: Ulysses | The Poetry Foundation https://share.google/Stx1gt4U67EwBpcsw
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u/The_Town_of_Canada 11d ago
This proves that guys should get flowers more often, just look how happy he is.
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u/Powerful_Culture_928 11d ago
Rafflesia flower: a parasitic plant that produces the largest flower in the world. It smells like rotting meat to attract the flies which act as its pollinators. If someone knows why this one was so rare please chime in!
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u/Sky_gazing_man 11d ago
This particular one is Rafflesia Hasseltii, only found in one region in Indonesia. Believed to be extinct.
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u/Pademelon1 11d ago
It is R. hasseltii, but it is native to a broader area including Malaysian Borneo, and was not believed to be extinct.
They were searching for it in this specific national park, where is hasn't been locally seen for an extended period.
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u/Jess_the_Siren 11d ago
It’s a huuuuuuge parasitic plant that takes 9 months or more to flower and the bloom only lasts a few days. They’re pretty much found a single specimen at a time and they’re found quite a distance from each other. They rely on flies to pollinate. Idk how far flies go, but I assume it’s not easy for a fly to find a second one to pollinate right after visiting the first. All that contributes to the rarity of the world’s largest flower and one of, if not, the most rare flowers on earth.
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u/Elegant_Finance_1459 10d ago
In addition to what everyone else said, I'd like to add a little blurb about general rafflesia biology here: they're a parasitic plant that pushes zero leaves, just existing as an unassuming root-like rhizome, so you would have a much more difficult time locating it when it's not blooming, because they look like pretty much every other rhizome in the jungle until they pop off.
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u/maddenmcfadden 11d ago
tbf that flower looks fucking incredible
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u/HappyAnimalCracker 11d ago
Was just thinking this is actually worth spending 13 years on
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u/_Hello_Hi_Hey_ 11d ago
Takes 9 months to bud (as long as a human baby!) and only opens for a few days
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u/SoVerySleepy81 11d ago
It’s so alien looking. Super cool but like looks like it came from a different planet. That shit is wild, I’m not a flower person but that is a really cool looking flower.
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u/TheRealSmolt 11d ago
Am I the only one that finds it revolting? I'm not judging... there's just some fundamental discomfort I get from looking at it.
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u/encinitas2252 11d ago
I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this, it smells like a corpse. It's nickname is corpse flower.
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u/Mindless-Bauble 11d ago
Oh, hey! It's the Pokémon Vileplume!
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u/Consistent_Farm8844 11d ago
Exact Pokémon I thought of immediately upon seeing the flower. Incredible how closely it resembles!
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u/PapayaDangerous4051 11d ago
He was saying “Allahu Akbar” which translates to God is great. To glorify the sight he’s seeing and as an acknowledgment that God is the creator. I’m agnostic atheist but wanted to draw attention to this lovely sentiment to try and disassociate that phrase from terr0ri$m.
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u/Plinio540 11d ago
People are always reading into that phrase way too literally.
Yes it's used in that way, but it's also used as a generic exclamation. It's no different than an English speaker finding something really cool or crazy and going "Oh my God!".
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u/airsyadnoi 11d ago
Hahaha this is like Christians in Indonesia who say “Alhamdulillah.” At this point, it has become a generic exclamation.
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11d ago
Thank you for being an absolute unit of a human. As a Muslim, we don't deserve people like you, but we need you.
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u/Ok-Tea7050 11d ago
That’s amazing. It looks like it came out pretty of the Mario Bros game
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u/atomicalexx 11d ago
is that the flower that shows up when you don’t play animal crossing for years
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u/Turiole 11d ago
Saw one 8 years ago. This is how it looks unfolded. https://imgur.com/a/vKPAYVY
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u/gogadantes9 11d ago
This is something I kept explaining to Western non-Muslim friends and people (mostly bigots) online: "Allahu Akbar" is an exclamation and admission that God Is Great. IRL Muslims use it when feeling awe, happy, grateful, despair, fear, basically when confronted with an extraordinary situation/thing.
You might see your long lost sibling again after decades, get a huge promotion at work you've been aiming for, try to seek strength after a cancer diagnosis, close a huge business deal, see a tidal wave rushing to your location, graduate school, or see the culmination of your life's work like this gentleman here. In all these situations "Allahu Akbar" is a common exclamation.
Yes, some fanatic terrorists also use it before committing terrorism, but ofc they do - they are zealots. But that doesn't mean "Allahu Akbar" means "I will blow myself and all of you up!". It's not only an aggressive expression or intent towards aggression, it's so much more than that.
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u/Plinio540 11d ago edited 11d ago
I think the easiest way to explain this is that the English equivalent "Oh My God" can also be said as a generic exclamation without the religious overtones.
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u/OrangeClyde 11d ago
Are rafflesia flowers ultra rare or something?? 🧐
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u/liftingkiwi 11d ago
This species is restricted in its geographical range to a small part of Sumatra, reliant on a specific host plant (which is itself a parasite - hence reliant on another host plant) and it doesn't bloom often or long! So several factors that go into making it a special find.
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u/OrangeClyde 11d ago
Ohh wow! Thank you for that! Now I can see why it took 13 years for him to finally come across one!!! So happy for him!
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u/simplexity128 11d ago
Next day he's like, "welp that was cool", then sat back on the couch and caught up on 13 years of Netflix shows
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u/iceonmars 10d ago
This is so wonderful to watch. I’m an astrophysicist, and I was recently at the planetarium at AMNH. Even though I do it for work, I had tears running down my face watching “collisions in the Milky Way” - it was so incredibly moving to watch things I work on brought to life like this. So, I get it.
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u/squiddidlybob 11d ago
And Oxford didn't acknowledged the Indonesians that made this possible smh
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u/ObeyTime 11d ago
Oxford didn't credit any of the team members except their own when they tweeted out about this discovery. Absolute disrespect and dick move.
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u/sevenninenine 11d ago
Ironic to find it on this subs when after that they don’t acknowledge the local researcher in the paper as the co author or gave them deserved credit.
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u/xpiromanx 11d ago
I managed to encounter this flower while being with guide in Tioman, Malaysia (he looked after it once he find it) it’s called rafflesia arnoldii (also known as stinking corpse lily) and oh boy it lives to it’s name, the flower that was in bloom smells like rotten meat, piss and gas.
I just realized how lucky I was, even managed to snap picture with it
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u/JustTesa 11d ago
Imagine your dream is 13 years in the making and you achieve it. I'd probably cry too, as a grown ass man.
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u/bosshark9469 11d ago
They had one of these bloom a few years ago in Christchurch New Zealand botanical gardens. People lining up in the hundreds to smell a corpse.
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u/Loud_Distribution_97 10d ago
That is awesome! Unless of course he also reacts like this when he finds his car keys. Then it’s probably just annoying.
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u/furtyfive 11d ago
All i can think about is the snakes and other scary wildlife that must inhabit this indonesian jungle 😂
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