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Dr. Chris Thorogood from the Oxford Botanic Garden and field biologist Septian Andrikithat made history this week when they found what is believed to be the world’s rarest flower. It looks like something straight out of an Avatar film or like a seed pod for the Demogorgon in Stranger Things, but also unimaginably beautiful.
The flowering plant was found in the rain forests of Sumatra and shared by the University of Oxford across social media. It is believed more roaming tigers have seen this flowering plant than any humans in history.
Biologist Breaks Down In Tears Upon Finding Flowering Rafflesia hasseltii Plant
In the caption, Oxford wrote that the biologists “trekked day and night through tiger-patrolled Sumatran rain forests (an island in Indonesia) to find the flowering Rafflesia hasseltii plant.
Septian Andrikithat, the biologist in the video that can be seen sobbing uncontrollably upon finding the flowering Rafflesia hasseltii, has gone viral after the video was shared. Millions of people are overcome with emotion at seeing him finally find this flowering plant after searching for it for the past 13 years.
The video is also available on TikTok if you would prefer watching there over YouTube. On TikTok, the clip has amassed 8.2 million views and counting in less than two days.
Why is this flower so difficult to track down?
The common name for the Rafflesia flower is ‘Cendawan Muca Rimau’ which roughly translates to ‘Tiger-faced Mushroom.’ A pretty apt description overall.
One of the many factors that make this the rarest flower on earth is the short flowering cycle of just 5-7 days, after which the plant dies. It is also a parasitic plant that hides itself inside a vine, and inhabits some of the hardest to reach rain forests on earth, regions that are crawling with wild tigers. Being a human being in those habitats is not easy!