TED-Ed

Explore how the Rafflesia plant uses parasitic strategies to grow the world’s largest flower, and find out why it smells so bad. -- Deep inside the Sumatran rainforest, a carrion fly descends, guided by the scent of its favorite place to lay eggs: rotting animal carcasses. But when it lands, it isn’t on liquifying flesh, but instead on the world’s biggest, and perhaps strangest, flower— Rafflesia arnoldii. So, how does this giant flower grow? Daniel Nickrent explores the parasitic tendencies of the foul-smelling plant. Lesson by Daniel Nickrent, directed by Igor Ćorić, Artrake Studio. Support Our Non-Profit Mission ---------------------------------------------- Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop ---------------------------------------------- Connect With Us ---------------------------------------------- Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram ---------------------------------------------- Keep Learning ---------------------------------------------- View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-does-this-flower-smell-like-a-dead-body-daniel-nickrent Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-does-this-flower-smell-like-a-dead-body-daniel-nickrent/digdeeper Animator's website: https://www.artrake.com Music: https://www.workplaywork.com ---------------------------------------------- Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Carsten Tobehn, Katie Dean, Ezgi Yersu, Gerald Onyango, alessandra tasso, Doreen Reynolds-Consolati, Manognya Chakrapani, Ayala Ron, Eunsun Kim, Phyllis Dubrow, Ophelia Gibson Best, Paul Schneider, Joichiro Yamada, Henrique Cassús, Karthik Cherala, Clarence E. Harper Jr., Vignan Velivela, Ana Maria, Exal Enrique Cisneros Tuch, Tejas Dc, Khalifa Alhulail, Martin Stephen, Jose Henrique Leopoldo e Silva, Mandeep Singh, Abhijit Kiran Valluri, Morgan Williams, Devin Harris, Pavel Zalevskiy, Karen Goepen-Wee, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, Ka-Hei Law, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Yansong Li, Cristóbal Moenne, Dawn Jordan, Prasanth Mathialagan, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario and Dominik Kugelmann - they-them.